


believe it or not!

by cherishiskisa



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: (NOTHING THAT HASN'T HAPPENED ALREADY.), (THE CHARACTER WHO IS DEAD HAS ALREADY DIED), (but only a little bit kind of in the middle), Chicago (City), Comedy, Ghosts, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Character Death, Paranormal Investigators, Science, Shenanigans, Slow Burn, honestly just about every character is at the very least mentioned, ill tag more things as they come up i guess?, oh also the chapters get longer as the fic goes on lol, the jeanmarco is really side jeanmarco but its in.. most of the fic so i tagged it as a main ship, the rating only matters in the last chapter, umm what else.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-10-18 21:21:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 82,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10625361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherishiskisa/pseuds/cherishiskisa
Summary: Eren and his tiny, rag-tag team (is it really a team when 2/3 of the members despise each other?) don’t actually believe in ghosts, but ghost hunting is a fun and easy way to get YouTube views and make money. When they have a chance encounter with an embittered true believer who claims to have evidence that ghosts actually are real, Eren isn’t convinced at first — until he himself sees what Levi was talking about, and together, they set about changing the world.Whom you gonna call? Bust Ghosters!





	1. Don't Try This at Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s a few variations on “JEAN IS SO CUTE!”, all of which Eren downvotes, a smattering of “my house is haunted please come help me,” the usual “who’s the third guy? Why isn’t he in more of these?”, and at least one “fake and gay,” to which Eren replies, _oh its very real, & why, whos asking? ;)_
> 
> Meet the Bust Ghosters!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello and welcome to bust ghosters au. i’ve been working on this since july 2016 and did the bulk of the writing for it in august — since then it’s been editing and editing and editing! to call this a labor of love would be the ultimate understatement, and i really hope it shows!!!  
> some things in this fic are true, some are not. that is the way fiction works! i set this fic in chicagoland because it’s the area i know best and it seems like a great city for all these people to come together. anyway some of the chicago-related information in here is true and some of it is kind of not true, hopefully there aren't any chicago studies scholars reading this fic but if there are: im sorry...  
> if ur thirsty for general ‘verse content, on my tumblr i use the tag [‘bust ghosters au’ ](http://gaywillis.tumblr.com/tagged/bust-ghosters-au)to keep track of things that remind me of them. so there’s that. also i have made a spotify playlist/“official soundtrack” for this fic which is always under construction and can be found [here](https://open.spotify.com/user/chicagotaz/playlist/06OLHVgvlqu3VOy834OlJW)  
> oh also: this fic is rated M but that’s really only applicable to the epilogue, chapter 12  
> if you have any questions at all about anything that happens here or if you just wanna talk about it, i can be reached on [tumblr @gaywillis ](http://gaywillis.tumblr.com/)and [twitter @paratazxis ](https://twitter.com/paratazxis). i’ll be using the tags “fic: believe it or not!” and “fic: believe it or not” and also my ao3 name and also my url lol so if you wanna chat, message me or post in those tags and i’ll see it! and, of course, i would LOVE your comments and reviews on here!! it’s a long ass ride but hopefully it’ll be worth it. thank you so much for reading, stay spooky out there, and… see you on the other side  
> 

The floor creaks loudly when Eren takes a step, so he steps back so as not to risk breaking through the aged wood. His eyes are fixed on the camcorder screen in front of him, and he elected to leave the night vision goggles in the van, so the only way he can see his surroundings is through the camera, enhanced with infrared for this exact purpose. “Okay,” he whispers, slowly making his way through the room. “We split up so we could cover more ground. I think I’m going to leave the Ouija board where it is — whatever was messing with it was a really powerful spirit, and I don’t want to risk pissing it off even more.” He continues on his near-silent journey through the room, eyes narrowed at the camera.

There is a sudden beeping, and Eren hisses a curse under his breath and fumbles with the camera so he doesn’t drop it. The EMF meter in his pocket is going nuts, and once he’s gotten it out, he holds it in front of the camera’s viewfinder to record the reading he’s getting. “Holy shit,” he breathes. “This is— I’ve never seen anything like this. Fuck, I think— shit! The EVP! I bet it’s trying to communicate—”

On his way back to the room where he and Jean had left the EVP recorder, he trips over a curled-up corner of carpet, and falls right into Jean’s arms, dropping his camera in the process.

“Dude!” Eren half-shouts, heart going a million miles an hour. “Watch where you’re going! That’s fucking dangerous!”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Jean says, looking grim, and Eren stops.

“Wait. Did you see something?” he says, straightening up slowly and grabbing his camera. “What did you see?”

Jean shakes his head. “Let’s just go check the EVP. That’s where you were going, right?”

The small box is stationed in the furthest corner of the room, and Jean and Eren creep along to it as quietly as possible, both of them with cameras in hand. Once they’ve made it there, Jean picks it up carefully and hands it to Eren so he can get a shot of the numbers on the screen, which indicate that there’s more audio recorded than usual.

“Okay, I’m gonna play it,” Eren whispers, and Jean nods before Eren presses the playback button. They both lean in to hear it, and at first, all there is is static, same as usual.

“I’m not hearing anything,” Eren starts to say, but Jean shushes him, frowning as he adjusts his grip on the camera he’s got pointed at both of their faces. Eren quiets down and focuses on the recording again, closing his eyes as he strains to hear.

And suddenly, there it is.

_Eren_.

Clear as day, on the recording, Eren’s name.

Eren’s heart jumps into his throat, because _what the fuck_ , and even Jean is wide-eyed.

“Did it just—”

“Shut up,” Jean hisses, turning a knob on the side of the device to up the volume.

And there it is again. _Eren_.

“Why me?!” Eren says, panicked. “Spirit, what— what’s happening, what do you want from me?”

“It’s a recording, dumbass, it’s not gonna react in real time,” Jean mutters. “Maybe if you listen, it’ll tell you.”

“Holy shit,” Eren says, looking at Jean over the recorder. “Is this gonna be what finally does it? Is this the real deal?”

_Eren Jaeger_.

“Jesus!” Eren yelps, then quickly covers his mouth with his hand because the machine is hissing again and the spirit seems to be about to say something else.

_Eren. I’m so hungry… I’m so hungry. Can we please go to IHOP after this_.

Eren stops the playback, then turns to look at Jean, who’s making the worst face he’s ever seen in his life.

“Jean…”

“You were so fucking freaked out!” Jean crows, bursting into laughter and pointing at him. “So— oohohoho, what’s the spirit got to say? What do you want from me, spirit? The spirit wants IHOP, man, and it’s smart! IHOP is a great place! Classic.”

“You’re such a fucking douche!” Eren yells, dropping the recorder so he can shove at Jean’s chest. “This is serious business, you can’t slack off like this, we could get killed in here—”

“What is it, Eren? What’s gonna kill us in here, pancakes?” Jean says, dodging him and still laughing. “I’d love to get killed by pancakes.”

“Gonna get killed by me, at this rate,” Eren says, launching himself at Jean fists-first.

“Ow, fuck! Stop it, I was just— ha, you’d love it if I died, then I could be a fuckin’ ghost and haunt you all the time— stop,” Jean whines, trying to dodge most of Eren’s punches and not really succeeding. 

There’s a loud thump from the upstairs (where both of them had been too afraid to go; not because of potential paranormal activity but because the stairs seemed really rickety), and Eren scowls, kicking at Jean’s leg. “Another one of your spooky tricks?”

“Actually, no,” Jean says, looking a little worried, but Eren is angry as hell and doesn’t believe him, so he shoves him. “Quit fucking pushing me!”

“Quit fucking around!” Eren counters, shoving him yet again, and the same thump comes from closer above them, this time. “And stop doing whatever the fuck that is.”

“I’m not doing shit!” Jean insists, pushing Eren away from himself.

“Yeah, right. I said cut it out,” Eren growls, remaining at a distance from Jean. “It’s not fucking funny.”

“Eren, I’m not doing anything,” Jean says, and he’s all weirdly sincere; his weird sincerity is even showing up on the camera screen.

Eren frowns, glancing up, and that’s when the corners of the ceiling collapse with a crash.

Jean and Eren both scream and barely have the wits about them to grab the EVP recorder from the floor before they scramble for the exit, slipping and stumbling and pushing each other out of the way in their haste to get out of the house. Practically in hysterics, they make it out of the front door and don’t look back even once as they sprint down the lawn, barely manage to hop the fence, and jump into the van waiting out front, scared out of their minds and shaking.

Twenty minutes later, they’re at IHOP.

“Looks like raccoons,” Armin says, chin leaned in one hand as he plays back the footage on Eren’s camera.

“Raccoons,” Jean says, pointing a french fry at Eren. “I had nothing to do with it.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Eren mutters, “but you fucked up the EVP.”

“Come on, that was hilarious,” Jean sighs, eating the fry and chewing with his mouth open on purpose. Eren shoves at him, throwing a pleading look Armin’s way.

“…I don’t know, it was pretty funny,” Armin says after a moment, and Jean whoops triumphantly.

“What fucking ever,” Eren snarls, grabbing his camera back from Armin and stealing a strawberry from his plate. “Let’s just film this part and go home.”

“Reminder, before we do,” Armin says, giving Jean his camera as well. “The Ouija board is going in a different episode, so don’t say anything about that right now.”

“‘Kay,” Jean says, almost letting Eren have a french fry but pulling the basket back at the last second. “Who’s the ghost again?”

“Samantha Willow,” Armin says, looking like he’s explained this five times today already (he has). “Inhaled a bunch of smoke during a fire at her warehouse job, refused to be hospitalized, came home and lived on the brink of death for nearly two months before her brother finally put her out of her misery. Responsible for the suffocation deaths of three residents in the 1970s. Nobody’s lived in the house since 2003, and it’s recently been condemned. Probably because of the raccoons.”

“Is, uh,” Jean says around a mouthful of fries, “is any of that true? Does she have a Wikipedia page or something?”

Armin shrugs. “She does now. Start filming.”

Eren nods and starts his camera, setting it on the table so he doesn’t have to hold it. “That was fucking crazy, dude,” he says, trying to look shaken. “Even you were freaked out. That was a powerful spirit— I don’t know if we’ve ever encountered something that powerful before!”

Jean shakes his head and takes a sip of coffee, being sure to hold his IHOP mug so the logo faces the camera. He’s still hoping for a promotional deal, even though they haven’t received an answer to any of the numerous emails they’ve sent IHOP’s way. He just can’t take a hint, apparently. “Nah. You saw that place, man, we scoped it out earlier, it’s just a rickety house. Place is condemned, for crying out loud! Of course it’s gonna be creepy and spooky. It doesn’t mean Samantha Wilbur— fuck, did you say Samantha Willow? Samantha Willow. Willow, like from Buffy.”

“And the movie _Willow_ ,” Eren adds, pausing the recording so Armin knows what to cut when he’s editing. 

“Never saw it,” Jean says. “Okay, sorry, Willow, got it. Start again.” Eren hits record, and Jean resumes. “Of course the house is gonna be creepy and spooky and falling apart and shit, it’s just old. Doesn’t mean Samantha Willow is looking for revenge.”

“But you felt it, too,” Eren insists, getting his EMF meter out. “This felt it.”

Jean regards the device, then sighs and has another gulp of coffee. “Maybe it’s just low on batteries.”

Eren frowns. “No way. We just put new ones in last month.”

“Maybe we should,” Jean says, looking a little sneaky for reasons that have nothing to do with ghost-hunting, “go get some more batteries.”

Eren, meanwhile, has been opening the battery case and getting the batteries out. “Here,” he says, handing a battery to Jean. “Test it.”

“What the fuck! I’m not about to lick this battery,” Jean huffs, pushing Eren’s hand away. The battery falls into his basket of fries, which is nearly empty. “We should get new ones.”

“But why get new ones if these are fine!” Eren protests.

“For the next time it breaks, duh,” Jean says. “Planning in advance. Foresight. I’m a genius.”

“Yeah, we’re gonna have to cut all of this,” Armin says bleakly, stabbing at the last bit of his pancakes.

“Okay, but can we go to the hardware store anyway?” Jean asks, hopeful.

“They’re closed right now, Jean.”

“But… tomorrow.”

“Maybe.” Armin looks at him, suspicious. “What is it with you and that place?”

“They just have a really good selection,” Jean mumbles defensively, crossing his arms. Eren decides now is a good time to try and steal some more of Jean’s fries, and he almost succeeds before Jean notices what he’s up to, shouts something incoherent, and smacks his hand away. In order to prevent Eren from trying this again, he grabs a handful of fries and shoves them in his mouth, but almost immediately squeaks and spits them all back out again, a battery in the soggy mix. “Fuck!”

“The batteries are okay, huh,” Eren says, barely holding back laughter.

“I hate you so goddamn much,” Jean grouches, and Armin long-sufferingly waves a waitress over so they can get the check and go home.

Once they’re back, Armin confiscates their cameras and disappears to his room so he can start editing the video, and Jean and Eren briefly consider hanging out before they decide they’ve seen enough of each other today and go their separate ways. Jean has work the next morning, so Eren, who shares a wall with him, thankfully doesn’t have to listen to his loud music and video game sounds until 2 AM. Maybe only until 1.

Eren kicks off his Keds, closes his bedroom door, and goes over to flop face-first on his bed. Today wasn’t all that tiring, but he likes to do that anyway, because it makes him feel like he’s accomplished something that he deserves a rest from. Once he’s done lying face-first, he rolls over and grabs his computer so he can check out the comments on their latest video. There’s a few variations on “JEAN IS SO CUTE!”, all of which Eren downvotes, a smattering of “my house is haunted please come help me,” the usual “who’s the third guy? Why isn’t he in more of these?”, and at least one “fake and gay,” to which Eren replies, _oh its very real, & why, whos asking? ;)_

It’s hard work, being a fake hunter for fake ghosts, but someone’s gotta do it.

He scrolls through their YouTube channel for a few more minutes, then sees something at the top of the screen and pauses to savor it before pulling up Facebook and messaging Jean and Armin both.

_hey lol don't freak out but we hit 100k_

With that, he closes his computer, changes into pajamas, and goes to sleep.

A day in the life: they go from house to house, sometimes driving into downtown to find places (but that’s trickier, because they rarely have permission to go into most of them and there are more people around to call them out) but usually just sticking to the suburbs. Every once in a while, Eren or Armin will reach out to college friends who live in the area and ask permission to film in their house, but usually, it’s old, abandoned buildings and warehouses they go to. On a very exciting day, they’ll go into a Starbucks past closing or a fancy hotel lobby in the dead of night when no one’s around, and spend half an hour running around and screaming about the spirit world until security inevitably shows up. Their gear is real (and, unfortunately, expensive), but the ghosts they’re hunting aren’t. At least, as far as Eren knows. 

The past two years that they’ve been doing this regularly have been some of the most fun of Eren’s life, but if four years ago you’d told him that soon, a major source of his income would be the stupid ghost hunting videos he and his sleepy, obnoxious roommate had started making, he’d have laughed you out of the building. But, believe it or not, it’s his life now, and they get enough revenue from ads, sales of t-shirts with their logo and Jean’s stupid “what is it, Eren” catchphrase on them, and the limited PDF run of Armin’s ghostly cookbook (featuring boo-berry cupcakes and ectoplasmic chia seed pudding) to fund Jean and Eren’s video game habit and occasionally repair the van when it breaks down.

As to the bills, it pays some, but not all of them, which is why a few days a week, Eren makes his way to the Church Street Plaza mall in Evanston (yeah, Eren’s the type to have never moved away after graduating from college) and sits at a desk for six to eight hours, until the sun sets and he and Jean — fresh off a shift at the hardware store — and Armin can hop in their van and go to the next location to fake some EMF readings and play back pre-recorded EVP audio. They have a tiny but very devoted fanbase, which is much more than Eren thought he’d ever have. Jean, too, though he won’t admit to it in any but his most vulnerable, drunk moments. Armin could honestly be doing much better than all of this, and all three of them know it, but he hasn’t found anything he likes doing more yet, so they get to have him on the team for now (even though he’s scared of the dark and refuses to actually go into the houses. That’s why he’s not in many of the videos). Eren knows that Armin and Mikasa sometimes talk, and that Mikasa always tries to convince Armin to get on with his life, and Eren isn’t quite sure how he feels about that.

(Yes, he is. He’s pissed and hurt, not that it matters.)

He decided, back at the very, very beginning, that he didn’t have to justify his choices or actions to anyone, and sometimes following his own rule on that is pretty hard, but it’s what keeps him going. If that rule applies to random assholes on the street and commenters on YouTube, it definitely applies to Mikasa.

And besides, what’s she doing, getting her PhD at Harvard? That’s boring as fuck. Predictable. At least Eren is making the most out of his 20s and having a great time doing so.

Admittedly, it’s not always a great time, because working the information desk at the mall isn’t the most rewarding of professions.

“Ma’am, I agree that Sunglass Hut is a wonderful establishment,” Eren is saying, looking as regretful and subservient as he can. “And I understand that your beach party is next week. But I promise you, the reason you can’t find Sunglass Hut on the map of this mallis, in fact, because we do not have a Sunglass Hut.”

“But when I Googled it,” the woman says, fuming, “it said there was one.”

“But there clearly isn’t.”

“But Google said there was!”

“Are you sure you Googled the right mall? There are a couple in Evanston, see.”

“How dare you—”

This continues for a while, and by the time Eren reaches his lunch break, he’s almost happy to see Jean, who has decided to drop by for some reason (historically, just to piss Eren off). He hasn’t even brought food or anything, like Eren has occasionally done for Jean when he’s working double shift at the hardware store (not the one that he keeps wanting to go to, though! A different hardware store! It’s a mystery), just his own annoying self. 

“What’s up, fucko,” Jean greets amiably, once he’s tracked Eren down in the food court. 

“Just living in hell,” Eren replies cheerfully. “Not to be rude or anything, but why the fuck are you here?”

“Well, I was gonna buy you a juice to celebrate reaching 100k,” Jean says, “but you’re a dick, so I bought myself two juices and drank both of them.”

Eren groans, balling up a napkin and throwing it at Jean. “Prick. Why are you here, really?”

Jean rolls his eyes. “Why do you think? We’re going somewhere tonight, and Armin asked me to drop off some papers for you.”

This never happens, so Eren is suspicious. “Uh. But we just did one last night.” He keeps his voice down, because it could easily sound like they’re planning to rob a house or something. 

“I know, but apparently this is a special one because of the date.”

Eren frowns and takes a sip of coffee from his thermos. It’s cold. As usual. “I hate this haunted fucking thermos,” he mutters, then reaches out to take the papers Jean is holding. “Anyway, what’s special about it?”

“Apparently— Armin explained this to me, but I wasn’t really listening— this is a house that’s pretty well-known for being haunted, and this specific date is important because, uh, the ghosts there did a thing on that day, um,” Jean says. “I feel like maybe this was important when I was going to college, but. It—”

“Made you sleepy, I know,” Eren says, glancing over the papers. “Huh. Yeah, I’ve heard of Leopold and Loeb. They killed some kid just to prove they could, and then went to prison. Something something Clarence Darrow, death penalty, and… that’s all I’ve got. Anyway, why tonight?”

“It’s the anniversary of when they did it,” Jean says, tapping on the date at the top of the Wikipedia printout. “There’s supposed to be mad psychic activity going on.”

Eren sighs and sets the papers back down. “What’s up with this? We never have this much accuracy. No one gives a shit.”

“Trust me, I know,” Jean says, pulling a pack of bubblemint gum out of his pocket and eating three sticks at once. “But since this is, like, an important date and a big ghost thing in the ghost community or whatever, Armin thought that if we did a video on it, maybe we could break into the big leagues. Get viewers who aren’t just fourteen-year-old girls who want us to make out.” Both of them shudder. “Like, start doing collabs with other people who do the same thing, more serious people, maybe.”

Eren thinks longingly of ghost hunting shows that actually make it to TV and have real viewers. “Isn’t 100k the big leagues?”

“I mean, I guess. But we’re talking _big_ big leagues. Like, imagine working with the Ghost-Mythbusters.” Eren fucking loves that show, and he’s been imagining working with the Ghost-Mythbusters since the second video he and Jean had made.

Eren daydreams about it for a moment longer, then looks at Jean skeptically. “Jean. There’s a problem with this.”

“What is it, Eren?”

“Don’t— don’t fucking do that. The problem is: how are we going to collab with famous ghost hunters if we’re shitty at catching ghosts and we’re not even believers ourselves? Like, it’ll be a little tricky to maintain the act 24/7,” Eren says, sipping his coffee. He honestly thinks it might be colder than room temperature, now, which seems like it should be impossible, but he’s been convinced this thermos is haunted for years, so it’s no longer surprising. 

“Dude, if we do that, we’ll be so fucking rich that it won’t even matter,” Jean says, waggling his eyebrows. 

Eren sighs, glancing at the papers again. “I dunno, Jean. It doesn’t seem as straight-forward to me.”

“Okay, but you’re coming tonight anyway, right?” Jean prods.

“As if I have a choice, dude! Yeah, duh, and thanks for bringing the papers over,” Eren says grudgingly. He doesn’t like being nice to Jean, it makes him too smug.

Jean, just as Eren had thought, immediately gets very smug. “Admit it. You need me.”

“You’re so obnoxious,” Eren mutters. “Please leave before I call mall security on you.”

Jean, laughing, gets up from his chair and steals Eren’s thermos so he can take a gulp. “What the fuck,” he says once he’s done so. “Why is this so cold?”

“My thermos,” Eren says, “is _haunted_. Now get out of here.”

Jean, thankfully, gets out of there, but not before drinking the rest of Eren’s cold coffee even though it clearly tastes horrible.

Eren wonders, not for the first time, how he’d ended up with such a shitty best friend.

After dealing with Jean’s antics, the rest of the day seems mild in comparison, and the more Eren looks at the files on the Bobby Franks house, the more excited he gets to go do some real fake hunting. Jean and Armin are right; this really could bring them more attention from the more serious ghost hunting community (if that’s even what it’s called. Paranormal investigation community, perhaps?). Maybe other people will show up at the house as well, and maybe it’ll be the three brilliant investigators of the Ghost-Mythbusters, and maybe they’ll take Eren on as a protégée, and maybe he’ll win a daytime Emmy and spend the rest of his life lounging poolside and being fed champagne grapes by supermodels of every gender.

More likely than not, though, there’ll just be more raccoons and more shenanigans until the end of days.

“Gear up!” Armin shouts at Eren as soon as Eren gets back to their apartment, and Eren nods and rushes through to his room to do just that. “Gearing up” consists of putting on clothes he’s not afraid to get dirty and confirming that all the equipment is functioning. Much to Eren’s continuing dismay, they still don’t have matching outfits or anything (Jean insists that it’d be tacky, but Eren can’t think of anything cooler than a bomber jacket with his name embroidered on the back and their logo on the front), so picking out some ratty jeans, a t-shirt, and a hoodie takes about 30 seconds. The batteries in the EMF meter are probably dead by now, but it’s not like they need real readings, anyway. It’ll be just fine.

Eren’s ready to go in another minute. He goes out to the living room, hopping on one foot as he puts on his other shoe, and nods at Armin. “Hey. Thanks for the papers.”

“Noooooo problem,” Armin says, not looking up from his computer as he memorizes how to drive to the house. “We just have to be careful with this one, since it comes with lore.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t want to piss off any savvy viewers,” Eren agrees, succeeding in pulling on his shoe and then sitting down because that wore him out. “Where’s Jean?”

“Doing his hair, I think,” Armin says. “God help us all.”

Eren makes a vague noise in agreement, but Jean shows up in another moment with his hair looking as awful as it usually does. “Let’s fucking _go_!” he shouts, and Eren is weirdly endeared that Jean is as excited about this as he is. 

Armin stands up, hands Eren and Jean their cameras, and waits for them to collect the rest of the small gear that isn’t in the van before heading for the door. “Who calls shotgun?”

“Me,” Jean says immediately, because Eren was distracted by his shoelace coming untied.

“Aw, come on,” Eren complains, trudging after them out to the van. 

“You can have it on the ride back,” Armin promises, but Eren can see that he’s got his fingers crossed, and when he calls Armin out on it, Armin just laughs. “Listen, it’d be unfair of me to promise shotgun in advance. How about… whoever catches the most ghosts gets shotgun?”

“Weirdo,” Eren mutters, getting into the back of the van and setting his bag of gear down. 

“How’s the EMF?” Jean asks, very smugly buckling his seatbelt once he’s in the passenger seat.

Eren gets it out and tries to turn it on. “Dead. Whatever.”

“Uh, no, not whatever,” Jean says. “That’s very serious. We can’t be good investigators and researchers without an EMF.” Armin is starting the car and finding their favorite radio station; it’s about a 45-minute drive from Evanston to Kenwood. “Tomorrow, we should go and get batteries.”

“Nah, it’s my day off,” Eren says, buckling himself into the shitty little seat they’d installed in the back of the van after they’d just bought it.

“That’s exactly why you should come with me,” Jean says, turning around in his seat to look at Eren. “I might get the wrong kind of batteries if I go alone and then we’d have to go back.”

Eren sighs, shaking his head. Jean turns back around, and Eren looks at the tiny disco ball attached to the roof of the van for a few minutes before clearing his throat. “Jean.”

“Eren.”

“I think,” Eren says solemnly, “the time has come for me to ask what’s up with you and the hardware store.”

“Nothing’s up with me and the hardware store.”

“Jean, you _work_ at a hardware store. You get an _employee discount_ at said hardware store. And _yet_ , we always go to the _other_ one. Explain.”

Jean huffs, and his ears look suspiciously red. “I’ve told you a million times, I just like their selection better, and, you know, sticking it to the man… It’d be giving in to the _system_ to shop at my own store.”

“The check-out boy is cute,” Armin says very mildly, and Jean squawks and flails around. “Am I right, is that it?”

“That’s— what! Super untrue, I’ve never— frankly, I’m offended at the— how could you insinuate such— no! Absolutely not!” Jean says, voice getting higher and higher. 

Eren rolls his eyes. “Gross. I wish I hadn’t asked.”

“This is bullying,” Jean whines. “Armin, you didn’t have to call me out like that.”

Armin shrugs, a sneaky little smile on his face. “Eren asked. I had an answer.”

“…I’m not obvious about it, am I?” Jean finally asks, shy.

“No. I honestly don’t think he even knows you exist.”

“Great,” Jean says, getting more forlorn by the second.

“Seriously, can we stop talking about Jean’s overly excitable dick?” Eren huffs. “I’m gonna need details later, though. But— turn the radio up, it’s playing my song!”

Jean’s love life forgotten, the three of them scream their hearts out to “Eye of the Tiger” and pick up a McDonald’s on the way to the house. But by the time they arrive, they’re a little more serious again, that excitement about getting a larger audience turning into determination to do everything perfectly once they’re inside.

“Text me if there are any problems,” Armin says, watching Jean and Eren boot up their cameras and collecting their gear into backpacks. “I’ll probably circle around the block, so if you don’t see me as soon as you come out, either go find me or just wait and I’ll show up in a minute.”

“Okay,” Eren says, turning on his small metal detector to test it. It immediately freaks out because they’re inside a metal van, and he turns it off again. “Thanks.”

“See you on the… other side,” Armin says in a spooky voice.

Eren laughs like he does every time, and Jean rolls his eyes. “How is that _still_ funny to you? Let’s go,” he says, and hops out of the back of the van.

“See you soon,” Eren says brightly, and hops out after Jean. 

The house is surrounded by a chain-link fence and it’s under some sort of restorative construction. Jean and Eren walk around the block slowly until they see a boarded-up window on the ground level that’s got a big gap in it, and they silently nod at each other before climbing the fence and skulking along up to it. 

“Ladies first,” Jean whispers to Eren, starting his camera.

“Fuck you,” Eren huffs, then pushes the wood aside so he can crawl through the window and into the house. He waits until Jean is also inside before powering his camera up and nodding to Jean again. They start to walk through the dusty room, and Eren starts his opening spiel. “We’re here in the Bobby Franks house on the south side of Chicago, it’s the 92nd anniversary of Bobby Franks’ murder, and let me tell you, my EMF meter is already going crazy…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading the first chapter!!!! title taken from a bust ghosters vlog, in which jean does skateboard tricks. please leave a review if you liked it and i’m always down to chat on tumblr or twitter!!


	2. Babe and Dick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Did that ghost just call you ‘dickweed?’”  
>   
> Jean and Eren make a friend.

“Eren, turn your camera off for a sec,” Jean whispers.

“Why? Based on the readings I’m getting, we could be seconds away from witnessing a class-2 or maybe class-3 apparition,” Eren whispers back, and Jean actually reaches over and turns his camera off for him. “Dude! What the fuck!”

Jean reaches into the pocket of his denim jacket and pulls out a flask. “You interested?” he says, wiggling it.

Eren huffs and snatches it from him. “Fuck yeah, I am. What’s in it, limoncello?”

“Whiskey, you ass,” Jean laughs, and both of them very quickly go quiet again when the wind screams through the cracks of the boarded-up windows. Eren takes a quick gulp from the flask, then wipes off the rim and hands it back to Jean, who drinks the rest. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Yeah, yeah, just do your job,” Eren says and turns his camera back on. “We could be seconds away from witnessing a class-2 or maybe class-3 apparition. You getting any readings, Jean?”

Jean is holding the metal detector in front of him and slowly swinging it around. They’d gotten one that didn’t look like a metal detector so it wouldn’t be immediately obvious that it’s a metal detector, but it reacts beautifully on camera and looks very impressive. “Yeah, but I’m not sure what they mean.”

“You _know_ what they mean,” Eren insists. “They mean we’re not alone in here. Admit it, you can feel it, too!”

“I don’t feel anything except cold, man.”

“That’s because of the _ghosts_!”

“No, it’s because the windows are open,” Jean says, pointing to the open windows. 

“…But maybe also ghosts.”

Jean sighs. “Dream on, Jaeger. You wanna try the upstairs?”

“I’m getting some pretty solid readings from down here, but—”

There is a creaking and a sound which is definitely not the wind; a low, almost moan-like noise which makes the hair on the back of Eren’s neck stand on end. The only word Eren can think of to describe it is, well, ghostly, and Jean and Eren look at each other and nod in unison. “Yeah. Let’s go upstairs.”

As they’re walking up, Eren covers the microphone of his camera and whispers, “Dude, what if this place is actually haunted?”

“It’s supposed to be actually haunted, dumbass,” Jean replies, clutching the handrail of the stairs for dear life just in case.

“No, I know, but, like, for real. Actually haunted. With a real ghost,” Eren explains, and Jean regards him like he’s gone insane.

“Eren.” He covers his microphone as well. “You know this is all fake, right.”

“Fucking obviously, but— I don’t know, I’m just getting a weird feeling about all this. Don’t you think it’s a little creepy?”

Jean shrugs, looking around cautiously once they’re on the second floor. “No creepier than they usually are.”

“No, Jean, I’m not even, like, keeping up the act,” Eren insists. “I just think something might be— you know what, whatever. Let’s just shoot the rest of the video.”

“Yeah, if anything’s weird about this place, it’s you,” Jean says and uncovers his microphone again as they start walking through the second floor. The wind howls through the boards and canvas covering the windows again and Eren shivers; it’s inexplicably much colder on the second floor than it was on the first. He knows there’s no way there’s actually anything supernatural here, and he’s never been one to frighten easy, not even when he was little, but there’s something about this house that unsettles him. He’s sort of glad Jean is there, because even though neither of them actually believes in ghosts, Jean potentially believes in ghosts even less than Eren does, so he’ll definitely be able to talk Eren out of whatever weird doubting thing Eren is currently going through.

Creepy or not, the house is definitely old, so Jean extends the frail arm of the metal detector all the way out and starts pushing it along the floor to test the strength of the wooden beams. Eren points his camera in the opposite direction to just get some shots of the house, because the thumping and scraping is probably going to sound pretty fantastic and ghostly once Armin amps it up a little, and he’s doing his standard whispered stream-of-consciousness narration of everything he’s seeing. 

“Jean, did you see that?” he stage-whispers, slowly approaching a window to get a shot of the outside. “The auditory phenomenon got louder, and the lights out front flickered.And it’s getting colder and colder in here, brr. I shoulda brought a jacket. Oh, there’s the sound again! Whatever’s here— _whoever’s_ here— they’re getting stronger. They’re communicating.”

“Then maybe you should shut up and let them communicate,” Jean gripes, continuing to thump the metal detector against the floor. “I’d love to hear a ghost voice instead of your voice for a change. So if there’s any ghosts in here— please, speak up.”

“Who’s there?”

Eren freezes. Jean freezes. Everything freezes for a second, and then the panic sets in.

“Did you say that?” Eren hisses, eyes huge.

Jean shakes his head, looking pretty scared. “No. Did you?”

“No! What the fuck!” Eren exhales shakily, looking down at his camera to make sure it’s still recording. “Holy shit. Holy _shit_. Jean, I _told_ you I felt something weird about this house— holy shit. Fuck.”

“Calm down,” Jean interrupts, but he’s visibly rattled as well. “Let’s— where did it come from? Let’s go check it out.”

“I’m not gonna go fucking check it out, it’s a hostile fucking spirit and we’re on its territory and it’s going to kill us!” Eren says, clutching his camera to his chest. Later, he’ll probably be embarrassed about how freaked out he got, but right now, he can’t focus on anything but the pounding of his heart in his ears and how much colder the room suddenly is.

“I can hear you, you know.”

Eren whimpers.

“What— no, I can’t even do a ‘what is it, Eren,’ this is too fucking freaky,” Jean despairs, reaching out to grab a handful of Eren’s shirt. “We’re going to die in here. Tell my mom I love her—”

“Ew, don’t touch me!” Eren says, knocking his hand away. “You were the one that wanted to go investigate, so go investigate. I’ll stay here and… watch the gear.”

“Coward,” Jean scowls. “You’re coming with me. I know otherwise you’ll just leave this fucking place. I thought you weren’t scared of anything, huh?”

“That was before I heard a _fucking ghost_ telling us to get out of its house!”

“I don’t think that’s what it said.”

“So you admit, you heard—”

“Eren, quit being an asshole and just—”

“I’m not being—”

“This is serious, I’m, like—”

“If you’re so brave why don’t you go and check—”

“I actually might just do that right now, that sounds great—”

“Me, too, I’d love to go, and I’ll beat you to it—”

“Hey, will you shut the fuck up?” the same voice from earlier says, but much louder than before, because the person to whom the voice belongs is now standing in the doorway of the room and smoking a cigarette.

Jean and Eren both scream, Jean drops his camera, and Eren grabs Jean’s metal detector and points it threateningly at the figure. “Spirit!” he shouts, mind going totally blank. “I, uh, I exorcise you in the name of the—”

“I’m not a ghost, dickweed,” the figure says. The figure is wearing fingerless gloves and holding a narrow rectangular device.

Jean blinks. “Did that ghost just call you ‘dickweed?’”

“Am I being punk’d?” Eren says weakly, feeling a little faint.

“How the hell did you even get in here?” The person is now grinding out his cigarette on the floor, which probably isn’t safe, but Eren isn’t very concerned about a house fire right now. “Did you jump the fence or cut it? If you cut it, you’re idiots, and the cops might get involved.”

“No, uh, we climbed,” Jean says, because Eren is too busy having an existential crisis to be able to talk much. “Are you— are you here for the ghost?”

“We’re paranormal investigators,” Eren blurts out, and for his efforts he is rewarded with an eyebrow raise from this mysterious black-clad doorway ghost.

“Am I meant to be impressed? You’re threatening me with a metal detector,” the person says, sounding very bored with the whole situation. “Get out of here.”

“Is that, like, a _get out of here_!” Jean says, putting on a Brooklyn accent (he’s clearly just as nervous as Eren is). “Or are you genuinely telling us to leave?”

The guy rolls his eyes hard enough that Eren can see it in the dim light, then turns to go back into the room he’d come from.

“Wait!” Eren says, stumbling after him. “Wait, who are you? Why are you here? If you’re not a ghost, I mean.”

“I’m very obviously not a fucking ghost. What’d you call yourselves? Paranormal investigators? And you can’t tell the difference between a ghost and a real fucking human being? Kids these days,” the man mutters, continuing to walk away. He’s looking at the device in his hand, but no matter how hard Eren strains, he can’t quite see what’s on the screen.

“I’m— I’m Eren Jaeger, and that’s Jean Kirschtein,” Eren says, more or less on autopilot. “We have a webseries, um? It’s called Bust Ghosters.”

“Bust Ghosters?” the man/ghost repeats, turning around to look at Eren in disbelief. “You have a webseries called Bust Ghosters?”

“Have you heard of it?” Eren says, lighting up.

“Unfortunately.”

“Really? When? From who?” Eren says as he begins to get more convinced that this strange, diminutive person isn’t a ghost.

“From you, just now,” comes the disappointing reply. “Obviously.”

“Oh.” Eren frowns, glancing back at Jean, who’s still a little freaked out. “Um, so who are you?”

The man is starting to pack up his things, which consist of another rectangular device like the one in his hand, a laptop, and some notebooks. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t do this anymore.”

“Yeah, but you’re here,” Eren points out. “Here, let me give you my card—” they’d printed them at Kinko’s a few weeks ago and Eren had been handing them out to everyone, even his mom— “and you can call me if you ever have ghosts that need bustin’.”

His extended hand is met with such a powerful, withering look of disdain that he withdraws it again and tries not to look as scared as he feels. The man finishes packing his bag and straightens up. “I’ll pass. Now get out of my way.”

Eren and Jean both meekly get out of his way. “What was that box thing?” Eren asks, unable to help his curiosity.

“A Geiger counter,” the man replies, not looking back as he heads for the stairs. Eren follows him, because he’s only getting more curious by the second.

“For radiation? Why?”

The man snorts, hoisting his bag higher on his shoulder. “Can’t you guess? Everyone assumes that— okay, let’s call them ghosts, they’re electromagnetic, but they’re not. They’re radioactive.”

“Whaaaaat,” Eren says, glancing back at Jean, who is still filming. “That… actually makes a lot of sense?” It doesn’t, but he’s a very open-minded person, and ghosts may as well be radioactive because they’re not real in the first place, so it’s moot.

“Mm. Why do you have a metal detector?”

“It looks cool on camera,” Eren admits easily, shrugging. “Seriously, who are you? Is this place actually haunted?”

“Of course it is. Not that it matters,” the man says, coming to a halt at the foot of the stairs to check his pockets, presumably to confirm he has everything he came there with.

Eren squints at him. “Are you being serious?”

The man stops checking his pockets and turns to stare directly at Eren. “Do I look like I’m joking?”

Eren considers this, and him. He mostly just looks like a babe, if a little short for Eren’s tastes. “Uh. I don’t have enough data to be able to definitively say?” He gets a quiet huff for his efforts, which spurs him on. “Let’s exchange numbers or something! We haven’t really met many other people in the biz—”

“That’s not true, we have tons of connections and we’re very influential,” Jean interrupts, and since he’s standing a step or two above Eren, knees Eren in the back.

“Uh, yeah, very influential,” Eren agrees, but the man isn’t impressed. “Come on. I promise not to bother you or anything.”

“He’s lying, he’s very annoying,” Jean says unhelpfully, evidently incapable of being a beneficial presence in Eren’s life for more than two seconds at a time. 

“It might just be nice to have someone to go to for advice or gear recommendations and stuff?” Eren says. He’s really just excited to make a friend, even if said friend seems very cantankerous and overall unfriendly. “You know, swap stories, stuff like that.”

They stare at each other in silence until Eren begins to feel a little awkward, but then the man reaches into his bag and gets out his wallet. “Fine. But don’t call me. I’m only giving you this so you don’t follow me out of here.” He hands Eren a card, and Eren beams at him, toothy and bright.

“Thanks, man! Sorry if we disturbed your hunt,” he says, taking the card. “Call us if you ever wanna, like, team up on a video or something.”

“I won’t.”

“You won’t call or you won’t want to team up?”

“Both.”

Eren sighs, then glances down at the card. “Well, okay, uh, Levi. Have a—”

Before he can even finish his sentence, Levi is slipping out through the same window that Jean and Eren had come in through, and in a few more moments, Eren can hear the sounds of him scaling the fence.

“—good night,” he finishes, then turns to look at Jean. “Did that just happen?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Jean says. “Should we leave? This place gives me the creeps.”

For once, Eren can’t even bring himself to give Jean shit for that. “Yeah. I think we got enough for a video, anyway.”

“That guy was so weird,” Jean comments, getting a few more shots of the foyer. “And _short_.”

“Let the record show that you were too scared to talk to him,” Eren says, because his instinct to poke fun at Jean is even stronger than his survival instinct.

“I was not scared to talk to him! You were just standing in front of me,” Jean defends, pushing Eren out of the way so he can leave the house first. 

And as Eren climbs out of the window, he hears that soft, eerie wailing from upstairs again, and he shivers and gets out faster.

“How’d it go?” Armin says, unlocking the van so they can get in. “Bust any ghosters?”

“You bet,” Jean says, reluctantly allowing Eren to have shotgun.

“Hey, did you see anyone leaving just now?” Eren asks on a whim, buckling himself in before throwing his backpack into the back and semi-accidentally hitting Jean with it.

Armin frowns, pulling away from the curb and starting to drive to the nearest 24-hour breakfast place. “No, I don’t think so. Why?”

“Maybe he was a ghost after all,” Jean says in a spooky voice, reaching forward to grab Eren’s shoulders. Eren yelps and tries to smack his hands off, but he’s latched on pretty firmly.

“Who?” Armin says, glancing between them as they scuffle. “No fighting in the van.”

“He started it!” Eren defends, but leaves Jean alone once Jean lets go. “There was a guy there, I dunno, and—”

“There was _someone else_ in the house?” Armin says, alarmed. “Like, someone who works there?”

“No— no, I don’t think so. He was also there for the ghosts. I think.” Eren frowns, trying to remember the details of the conversation. “He was really weird.”

“And short!” Jean adds.

“And short.” Eren sighs, looking out of the window as they drive along and half-wondering if he’ll catch a glimpse of Levi in the car next to them, if he was even real. “Oh! I got his card!” He quickly undoes his seatbelt so he can reach his pockets and starts rifling through for it.

“He was also there for the ghosts, you said?” Armin clarifies. “See, I told you! Already making connections. Who is he, does it say on his card whom he works for? Could be a researcher for Ghost Adventures or something—”

“He’s a professor,” Eren says, disappointed. “Not even of paranormal shit. Lame.”

“What the fuck?” Jean says, trying to lean forward far enough to see the card. “That asshole, a _teacher_? No way.”

“Yeah, he’s a literature professor at some community college uptown,” Eren says, handing Jean the card. “What the shit was he doing there with a Geiger counter looking for ghosts?”

“A Geiger counter?” Armin repeats, intrigued. “There’s an idea.”

“Honestly, I’m still not convinced he’s real,” Jean shrugs, returning Levi’s card to Eren. “He was being really, like, shady. Told you all that shit about ghosts being radioactive way too easily.”

Eren frowns, turning the card over in his fingers. “I guess. That makes no sense, anyway.” Levi Ackerman. Professor of experimental literature. Eren has met a few people who hunt ghosts before, fellow vloggers with high aspirations, and none of them had been giving off the vibes that Levi had been. Even the really devoted ones had a self-deprecating streak and dry, ironic humor about what they did, half-believing, half-disbelieving; Levi had none of that. He just seemed tired, like he had all the proof he needed and wished he didn’t have to deal with it. Eren shakes his head and decides to stop thinking about it. What Levi does when he’s not teaching experimental literature (whatever the fuck that is) is his business. 

“I hope you got enough footage, at least,” Armin comments, jolting Eren out of his thoughts. “You weren’t in there for very long.”

“I think we did, and I think also the Ouija board thing from last night might work well here?” Jean says. 

“Good idea,” Armin praises with the same sort of tone he uses with his grandfather’s dog Jello, who is very stupid and very clumsy and frequently runs face-first into table legs, possibly on purpose. Jean doesn’t notice, just gets very smug. “Okay, does Denny’s sound okay? The IHOP isn’t on the way.”

“Fine by me,” Jean shrugs. “Eren hates Denny’s, so that’s even better.”

“Oh. I can go out of the way if he really hates it. Eren? Thoughts on Denny’s?” Armin waits for a few seconds, but Eren isn’t listening. “Eren. Denny’s.”

“Denny’s sucks,” Eren replies automatically, then blinks. “What?”

“Are you okay with going to Denny’s, and are you okay?” Armin asks, drumming his fingertips on the wheel. “Decide, like, right now, because if we’re going to Denny’s I need to take the next exit.”

“Yeah, sure,” Eren says absently.

“Wow, that house must have been _really_ haunted, huh?” Armin says. “You’re really out of it.”

Eren shrugs. “I’m fine. Just not that hungry.”

“I can’t believe Eren is fucking dead,” Jean says, grinning. “Hey, more pancakes for me, man.”

Eren can’t quite put his finger on what was so unsettling about Levi. The radiation thing doesn’t bother him, because, again, there’s just about nothing that’ll convince him that the thing he’s been pretending to believe in for the past four years is actually worth believing in. Nor does Levi’s crabby attitude, because he deals with worse on a daily basis at work. Maybe it’s the tiredness; will Eren be like that if he keeps doing this for the next few years? Maybe it’s his fingerless gloves. What’s the point of wearing fingerless gloves, anyway? They don’t keep fingers warm and cold fingers aren’t good at texting, so they clearly don’t serve any purpose beyond the aesthetic. Not that the aesthetic is bad. It’s bordering on a kinda “8th grader going through a scene phase” style, but it’s not bad. Maybe Eren will pick up a pair for himself at the Claire’s at his mall next time he’s working.

“Eren, seriously, what’s up,” Armin says, parking the car in the Denny’s lot. “You’re being really quiet, and a Journey song played on the radio just now and you didn’t tell us a _single_ fun fact about Journey.”

“None of his facts about Journey are fun,” Jean mutters. “Don’t give him ideas.”

“Hm? Oh, sorry,” Eren says, startled. “Just… thinking about ghost stuff. Journey… They held a radio contest to try and come up with a name for the band but all of the submissions were terrible and then one of their roadies came up with the name Journey and then they made up a fake listener to win the contest with it.”

“You told us that one last week.” Armin looks at him critically. “You know you can tell me if something’s wrong.”

“Come on, Armin, don’t be _gay_ ,” Eren mumbles. “I’m fine.”

“You’re the gay one, last I checked, but whatever,” Armin says and hops out of the car. 

“You wanna get drunk later?” Jean asks as they’re all walking into Denny’s. “I think my vodka’s about to hit its expiration date and I can’t drink it all myself.”

“I don’t think vodka can go bad, man,” Eren says, holding the door for Armin but letting it close on Jean. “But yeah, I’m game.”

Jean huffs, trying to kick Eren’s shins as they get a table. “I try to be nice, and what do I get for my efforts?”

“It’s probably gone bad already and you just want to poison me,” Eren accuses.

“Shit. You caught me.” Jean snickers to himself as he sits down opposite Armin, who hands their cameras back out. 

“Tone down the shenanigans, fellas. This is for the…” Armin wrinkles his nose. “Why did I just call you _fellas_?”

“Armin’s being haunted by the spirit of a 1940s newspaper salesman,” Jean says solemnly, staring directly into his camera. “Please pray for him.”

“Stop it,” Armin sighs, hiding a smile. “Anyway, don’t _minimize_ the shenanigans, but remember who the target audience for this one is.”

“You got it, chief,” Jean says, then turns to Eren. “Okay, turn your camera on. Quit slacking off and staring into space. What, does the waitress have a nice ass?”

“When will my life know peace,” Eren sighs, even though he’d missed the past three minutes of conversation. 

“When you’re dead and a ghost, dude. Speaking of ghosts…”

Eren basically phones it in for the first half of the debrief, even when they all move to the same side of the booth to watch the video Armin is about to upload, the one they’d filmed yesterday. Armin sits between Jean and Eren so they don’t bicker too much, and they all lean in very close to the computer so they don’t have to turn the sound up and disturb the other customers at the Denny’s. Every time Jean-on-the-screen says “ _What is it, Eren_?”, which is unfortunately quite frequently, Jean-in-real-life says it in unison, which is unsettling and also hilarious, so by the end, Eren is feeling more like himself. Levi was just a disillusioned weirdo with some confusing ideas; that’s no reason to be all out of sorts. The Bust Ghosters have a great time, and it’s none of their business if other people are miserable doing the same work. Armin is visibly relieved that Eren is back to normal, and even lets Eren pick the radio station on the drive home (naturally, he regrets this as soon as something by Cher comes on and Eren nearly blows out the van’s speakers).

Jean takes his Converse off once they’re back at the apartment and throws them into the living room without looking, ignoring Armin’s despairing sigh. “Alright, let’s do this. Armin, you’re totally welcome to join.”

“What’s happening? I probably can’t, I have to edit this,” Armin says, holding up the cameras.

“We’re getting drunk!” Jean enthuses, taking his jacket off and throwing it into the living room after his shoes.

“Ah!” Armin says. “Wow. Bummer that I’m missing out. Sounds like an absolutely amazing time. I’m so sad.”

“Oh, whatever, see if I ever offer you anything again,” Jean mutters, then heads into his bedroom (from which Eren is categorically barred forever) to find his booze. Eren, meanwhile, takes his shoes off and goes to the kitchen to find some mixers. Jean is back in another moment with a half-full bottle of vodka, some shotglasses, and a shitty grin. “Let’s turn _up_!”

“Why must you speak,” Eren says, taking the shotglasses from him and lining them up. “Give it.”

“Say please,” Jean huffs, but gives the vodka over to him anyway, eyeing the assorted juices with interest.

Eren pours two shots, then pushes one over to Jean and keeps the other for himself. “Okay. To, uh, a job well done?”

“Hell yeah,” Jean says, and they both knock their shots back.

An hour later, the bottle is more or less empty.

“What if,” Jean says, hiccuping, “ghosts _are_ real.”

Eren bursts into giggles, forehead pressed to the counter. “But Jean! They are!”

“Shut up,” Jean whines, thumping the mostly-empty bottle against Eren’s arm. “What if they _really_ are?”

“But they’re not! So it doesn’t matter,” Eren says, waving a useless hand to try and get Jean to stop. Jean doesn’t stop, and Eren nearly slips off his chair, but miraculously keeps his balance. “I mean, they’re not, right?”

Jean thinks about it for a second. “No. They’re not.” He then pours and takes a shot of pure apple juice, and Eren bursts out laughing again, then feels a little dizzy and stops laughing.

“It would be so weird if they were, though,” Eren sighs, leaning back in his chair almost as far as it will go. “You think they’d be like Casper or like Paranormal Activity?”

“I think they’d be like… my ass,” Jean finally says, evidently unable to think of anything better, but both of them think that’s absolutely hilarious and laugh about it for a while.

“It’s pretty late, huh,” Eren says once they’re done laughing, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. “We should sleep.”

“Mhmmm. Are there any more rice crackers?”

Eren slides the rice crackers over to him. “Don’t eat them all.”

“Okay,” Jean says, beginning to eat them all.

Eren sighs and starts to get up from his chair, but then stops, and Jean also stops eating his rice crackers. They look at each other. There are a few beats of silence.

“Hey. Are you… thinking what I’m thinking?”

“…Yeah.”

“Should we…?”

“…”

“…”

“…No.”

“You know what, you’re so right.”

“That’s a terrible idea.”

“Horrible. What the fuck.”

“I don’t know, man.”

“Me, neither.”

“This never happened.”

“Thank God.”

“Okay, good night.”

“Uh huh.”

Eren waves to Jean and stumbles into his room and falls down face-first on the bed. Once he’s nearly fallen asleep, he remembers that he’s still in dusty ghost house clothes and wiggles around until he’s wearing less of them before getting under the covers. He’s pleasantly drunk and not thinking about Levi anymore. Screw him and his weird cynicism, anyway. He had been so rude, and therefore clearly not worth Eren’s time. Eren happily resolves to keep him off his mind and cocoons himself in his blankets.

Satisfied with a job well done and a night well spent, Eren falls asleep, thinking about how he loves his friends and he loves his life and everything is just fine the way it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title taken from leopold and loeb themselves. nathan leopold’s nickname was babe, richard loeb, well… u can extrapolate. anyway what i love about the bobby franks house is that its literally like 10 minutes walk from my apartment! it’s been under reconstruction for years and years so i think it’s entirely plausible that they’d all be able to sneak in under cover of night despite it being such a famous location. thank u for reading, pls continue!! and pls leave a review if u have any thoughts you'd like to share :~)


	3. Halloween Special

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What’s up, man? You… look like you’ve seen a _ghost_.”
> 
> Eren has a close encounter of the third kind.

Eren wakes up and immediately wishes he were dead, not only because he’s got the headache of a lifetime but also because the first thing he sees is Jean’s face. “Why,” he mumbles, feebly pushing at this image of Jean to make it go away.

The image of Jean says something about a hardware store, and it sounds about as rough as Eren feels, so Eren is beginning to think that, unfortunately, this might actually be Jean.

“But my head hurts.”

“But you said we’d go to the hardware store,” Jean says miserably, looking hungover and full of regrets.

“But I’m so hungover,” Eren whines, turning over so his face is in the pillow. “Have pity.”

“We have to get batteries,” Jean insists, yawning.

“Why are you in my room, who let you in here,” Eren mumbles, starting to fall back asleep.

“No, don’t fall asleep, we have to go to the hardware store!” Jean says, but he sounds like he has to convince himself as well.

“Is there breakfast, at least?” Eren says after a while.

“Yeah. Armin made egg in a hole and bacon.”

“Should have led with that,” Eren says and sits up so quickly that it startles Jean, who stumbles back.

“He only made enough for himself!” Jean says defensively. “I figured maybe you could convince him to make some for me, too.”

Eren groans, running his hands through his own hair in the hopes it’ll wake him up slightly. “Fine. _Fine_. Get out and gimme a minute to wake up some more.”

“Yessss!” Jean says with way too much enthusiasm for someone who’s just as hungover as Eren is. That check-out boy must really be out-of-this-world cute, Eren thinks grouchily to himself as Jean leaves Eren’s room and Eren drags himself out of bed.

There is no breakfast for them, and Armin is hard at work editing, so Jean and Eren stop by McDonald’s on the way to the hardware store.

“Um,” Jean says, looking shifty as he eats his hash brown. “Don’t… don’t say anything weird to him, okay?”

“To who? Oh, your hardware store crush?” Eren grins, and is very gratified when Jean goes bright red. “I’ve never said anything weird to anyone, ever. Don’t worry. I won’t screw you over in front of your crush, I’m not _that_ dedicated to ruining your life.”

Jean eyes him threateningly, but drops the subject.

They walk through the doors of the hardware store thirty minutes later, and Eren immediately starts looking around for cute employees. He’s picturing a Fabio body-builder type, because he can’t imagine who else could possibly get Jean so fucking _bashful_ just by mentioning him, but he doesn’t see anyone of that description at first glance. “Right, so what are we getting?”

Jean pulls a very crumpled shopping list out of his pocket. “Batteries for the EMF, some random wires to put on the outside of stuff to make it look cooler, a timer to make spooky electronic noises at strategically planned points, and another flashlight,” he reads aloud, grabbing a shopping basket. Eren peeks over at the list and finds it totally illegible; Jean either has abysmal handwriting or he wrote it in code. “Split up so we can cover more ground?”

“No way, you were the one that was all, ‘but what if I get the wrong brand!’ I’m not letting you shop by yourself, you’ll fuck it all up,” Eren says, snatching the basket from him. “You said so yourself.”

“Hoisted with my own petard,” Jean sighs mournfully, following Eren to the electronics aisle. He looks all sneaky, keeps scanning around the store and craning his neck and generally being very obvious about how he’s looking for someone, and even though Eren thinks it’s really gross that Jean has a crush, it’s also pretty funny.

“Did you just quote _Hamlet_ , Jean? I’m very impressed,” Eren teases, grabbing a deluxe pack of double-A batteries and tossing it in the basket.

“Hell yeah, I did. It’s the only thing I remember from British Culture 101. Was asleep for the rest,” Jean explains, getting some triple-A as well.

Eren snorts, considering getting some replacement lightbulbs for the light inside the van, which has been flickering lately. “I remember, dude, I was there. We sat next to each other.”

“We did? I thought that was a dream,” Jean says, handing Eren a box of replacement lightbulbs. “Or a nightmare.”

“Dick,” Eren sighs, offering Jean an Advil as they keep walking through the store and adding the items from the list to the basket. They squabble over what kind of wires to get, and finally compromise by getting a coil of each after texting Armin for advice: one plain copper, one encased in rubber for safety. All in all, it’s a successful shopping trip, considering they didn’t try to kill each other, and Eren is about to congratulate himself on yet another overwhelming success when Jean, right on schedule, starts to complicate things.

As they approach the check-out, Jean squawks and actually cowers behind Eren, dragging them both to hide behind a rack of pliers arranged by size. “Shit! Shit shit shit.”

“What— ohh, is he there?” Eren says, sticking his head out from behind the rack to try and see.

“Yes— get back here!” Jean hisses, grabbing Eren again. “Don’t do that, he’ll see you.”

“Jean, he has to see us, we need to pay for all this shit,” Eren whispers. “Quit being a pussy and go talk to him.”

“No!” Jean whines, and he’s blushing again.

Eren rolls his eyes and takes pity on him. “Fine. Is another lane open? Let’s go to that one.”

“Okay,” Jean says, still clinging to Eren’s arm. Eren shakes him off and emerges from behind the rack, boldly walking in the direction of an open lane on the other end of the store.

“I can help you over here!” says an extremely friendly voice, and Jean squeaks.

Eren turns to see. The young man at the cash register is tall, slim, and freckly, and Eren wonders why the fuck Jean is so intimidated. He’s pretty cute, actually, and Jean having a crush on him only ruins the effect a little bit. “Hi,” Eren says, walking over and setting the basket on the end of the conveyor so he can start unloading it. “Sorry, I wasn’t sure this lane was open.”

Jean kicks him in the calf and Eren shoots him a look as if to ask what the fuck else he was supposed to say.

“Always open,” the young man— MARCO, if his nametag can be trusted — says with a bright smile. He then sees Jean (just barely, because Jean is mostly concealed behind Eren), and lights up so hard that Eren is a little embarrassed on both Marco and Jean’s behalf. “Oh! Hi!”

“Hi,” Jean mumbles, and Eren can practically hear how much he’s blushing.

“How are you today?” Marco smiles, scanning their flashlights and batteries through.

“Fine,” Jean says, sounding a little strangled. “How are you?”

“Me, too,” Marco says, then glances down at what he’s scanning. More batteries, wires, and a timer. The tiniest of frowns knots his eyebrows, but he puts a smile back on his face quickly and finishes scanning everything. “Do you need a bag?”

“Yeah, please,” Eren says, stepping aside. “Hey, you wanna pay for this? I got Denny’s last night.”

Jean mumbles something vague and small and pathetic, getting out his wallet and handing Marco his credit card without looking.

“Um, you can just swipe it right there, actually,” Marco says, carefully packing the purchases into a bag.

This might be the funniest thing Eren has ever seen. Jean is completely useless. “Oh,” Jean says, then shuffles forward to swipe his card. There’s a pleasantly awkward silence as Marco waits for the receipt to print, and then he hands it to Jean with a smile.

“Thanks! Come back soon, ah—” He glances at the bottom of the receipt, looking for the cardholder’s name. “Come back soon, Jean!” He says it like _Jeen,_ and it takes all of Eren’s immense willpower to not burst out laughing.

“Okay I will thanks Marco bye,” Jean says, voice getting increasingly higher, and grabs the bag and flees.

Eren, bemused but having the time of his life, nods at Marco and follows Jean out at a normal pace. “Dude, what the fuck?” he laughs once they’re back out at the car. “He’s totally chill, what’s the big deal, huh? Why’d you run?”

“He didn’t know my name until now,” Jean says, grinning from ear to ear. “And now he does.”

Eren rolls his eyes. “He pronounced it wrong.”

Jean shakes his head, dazed and blushing and smiling wider than Eren has ever seen him smile. “Doesn’t matter. He still knows it.”

Eren sighs and gets into the car. “Amazing. The greatest love story of our generation. Can we just go home, please? I need a nap.”

Jean is over the moon at this latest development and doesn’t even have a snarky comeback about Eren being a baby like he usually would, just gets into the car. He’s still in a daze even by the time they make it back home, and Armin, who is uploading their latest video, notices right away.

“What’s wrong with Jean?” he asks as Eren takes off his shoes and brings the bag of equipment over.

“Cute check-out boy kind of knows his name now,” Eren informs him. “Jean, how long have you been trying to hit on this guy? And he only now kind of knows your name?”

“Leave me alone, I’m shy,” Jean shouts, going into his bedroom and slamming the door.

Eren rolls his eyes and sits down next to Armin. “Have you ever seen him like this before?”

“Mhm. I went with him a couple weeks ago. It’s pretty terrible, but understandable, I guess. Marco’s cute.” Armin unloads the batteries, wires, and timer from the bag and huffs a quiet laugh. “You know, I’m pretty sure he thinks we makes bombs.”

“What?” Eren says, surprised. “Why?”

Armin gestures over the purchases laid out on the table. “I mean, look at this. And Jean is a very shady person in general. Has that shifty, antisocial look about him, you know?”

“Oh shit,” Eren says, laughing a little. “You know, come to think of it, he did make a weird face when he was scanning everything through. Shit. Hopefully, he’s into Jean enough that he doesn’t, like, call the cops, ‘cause we’ll have a hell of a time explaining that we’re not planning a terrorist attack, just hunting ghosts.”

“That’s probably also grounds for arrest in some countries,” Armin says dryly, then shoos Eren away so he can keep editing in peace. 

Once the video is posted, Eren retires to his room with assorted snacks to watch it and get a sense of what people are saying about it. He’s definitely not one to be upset by rude commenters; Armin definitely is, but Eren just thinks they’re funny, so he always goes through and either blocks the really vicious ones or replies with something witty (sometimes he has to ask Jean for help with that, to his own dismay). This one seems okay, though, so Eren’s pretty happy with the reception as the viewcount goes higher. 

He doesn’t have work again until tomorrow, so he decides to start on a load of laundry, throwing Armin’s in first and knocking on Jean’s door next. Jean is blasting unidentifiable music (from what Eren can tell, it’s some sort of 3OH!3 greatest hits playlist, but it could also just be industrial pipes clanging together) and it takes a few tries until he responds to the knocks by opening the door a crack and just flinging his laundry bag out at Eren. Eren lets Jean know what he thinks of this pretty emphatically, then goes back to his room to get what small amount of laundry he himself has. 

He goes through the pockets of his jeans and jackets to make sure they’re empty before throwing them in the washing machine (once, as a youth, he’d accidentally put his favorite Pokemon card in his pocket and forgotten about it and it had been totally ruined by the washer, scarring him for life). He finds nothing more than gum wrappers and small change until the last pocket he checks, from which he carefully removes a business card, a little rumpled but legible. 

It’s Levi’s card. Eren frowns at it for a long time and physically vacillates between throwing it away and saving it just in case, taking small steps back and forth between his desk and the small trash can by his door, and finally just makes a frustrated noise at himself and smacks the card down onto his desk. Levi may be sort of an asshole, if the first impression was anything to go by, but having his number around can’t do any harm. Maybe if the Bust Ghosters are really, really desperate for a new filming location and they’ve already called everyone they know and gone to every dilapidated building in the greater Chicago area, he could come in handy. Eren keeps the card, and continues on with his laundry.

Their next hunt isn’t for another two weeks. Filming two videos in a row had given them a chance to have some time off and look into new locations, and since the comments on the Bobby Franks one ended up all-around fairly laudatory, Armin decides that it could be fun to do another house that’s supposedly haunted. He picks a lower-profile one, though, where a maid died in the 1910s and occasionally harasses visitors — if the stories are to be believed. 

The house is abandoned, of course, and Eren somehow convinces one of his theatrically inclined coworkers to pretend to be the descendant of a lady who’d lived there in the 50s and say all manner of things on camera about how “Grandma always talked about the spoons going missing! And one time she heard a woman singing at night but when she told her mom about it, her mom said she hadn’t heard anything!” It’s definitely more effort than they usually put into their videos, but Armin assures Jean and Eren (who have been complaining non-stop about how overworked they are and threatening to unionize so they can get some fair treatment) that it’ll pay off once their viewcount and, therefore, their ad revenue goes up.

They reach the house just as the sun is going down, and Armin films Jean and Eren standing outside and talking about it.

“So we’ve put new lenses on the cameras,” Eren is saying, showing Jean his camera and tapping the side of the lens. “Filters the light much more accurately. If we see any apparitions, this baby will be sensitive enough to pick up the image like nothing else we’ve ever used.”

“I look forward to seeing a lot of video of HD dust,” Jean says, glancing into Armin’s camera.

“ _And_ Armin fiddled with the settings on the EMF meter,” Eren continues. “Now it’s got a tracker on it which sorta looks like, uh, is it sonar or radar? Look, it shows where the signal is coming from.”

Jean peers at the screen and makes a reluctantly impressed noise. “Pretty neat.” He touches one of the exposed wires on the side of the device. “Is it safe?”

“Yeah, as long as you’re not an idiot about it, which I know is a lot to ask,” Eren says, then returns the meter to his backpack. “Okay, are we gonna eat and then go in?”

“Might be a little _spooky_ , you sure you want to go in with a full stomach?” Jean grins, and Armin goes back to the van to get out the sandwiches they’d bought on the way there. 

They keep the cameras rolling while they eat, because sometimes the fans like to see some slice-of-life stuff, sitting on the hood of the van with Jean and Eren trying to push each other off every few minutes. Eren’s midway through a can of Sprite when he glances at the house and sees what looks like a figure in one of the upstairs windows, then promptly does a spit-take conveniently right over Jean. “It’ll look great in post-production,” Armin reassures a wet and angry Jean, handing him some paper towels. Eren is near-certain Armin will keep that line in; he likes to maintain an awareness of the camera in some of the vlogs, just to ensure that there’s still an element of reality in this supernatural world they’ve created. 

Once they’ve finished having their sandwiches and Jean has mostly calmed down from being spit on, Armin gets back into the van and sends Eren and Jean on their way. “See you on the… other side,” he says as usual, watching them both put on their backpacks and make sure their cameras are functioning, and Eren laughs as they trudge up to the house.

“I literally don’t understand how that’s still funny,” Jean mutters, grouchy. “He says it _every time_.”

“That’s why it’s funny, duh,” Eren says, chuckling to himself. “Sorry for spitting on you earlier. I saw a ghost.”

Jean rolls his eyes and checks his watch, evidently planning on timing how long they spend inside the house. “Don’t we always? Let’s go.”

They go quiet after that so they can focus on getting inside and starting to check out the good camera angles and general scenery of the house. It’s inexplicably colder inside than it is outside, but despite this, Eren still feels a little sweaty. It reminds him of the uneasy feeling he got inside the Bobby Franks house, actually, so he mutters to Jean that they should try to make this quick. Thankfully, Jean doesn’t question him on this, and they continue further into the house as Eren pulls out his EMF meter.

“You getting anything?” he asks Jean, who’s got a portable EVP recorder in his hand. 

Jean shakes his head. “It’s too dark in here, I can’t see the dial. Should we put the goggles on?”

“You mean my absolute favorite fashion statement?” Eren grins, then sets his backpack down so he can pull out two pairs of night vision goggles they’d gotten on eBay to cheer Jean up not long after he’d dropped out of college. “Check me out. Gucci, fall/winter 2017.”

“You look like an insect,” Jean sighs, strapping his goggles on. They leave his hair even spikier than usual, and Eren slowly zooms in on him.

“The elusive porcupine ghost,” he whispers, zooming in to the point that it’s impossible to tell what he’s even filming. “Extremely rare. Extremely hostile. Approach with utmost caution.” He zooms back out quickly and stretches his leg as far as it can go to kick Jean.

“Fuck you!” Jean shouts, his voice echoing slightly. He also stumbles, because the goggles take a while to get used to, and Eren only laughs harder.

“Gets loopy when provoked,” Eren adds. “Hey, isn’t it a little redundant that we have night vision goggles _and_ infrared shit on the cameras?”

“Listen, man, better safe than sorry,” Jean shrugs, tilting his camera up to film the ceiling, which is covered in large, wet-looking blotches. Eren just hopes it doesn't collapse like the raccoon-infested one had, although it would make for a good video.

“Ohoho! What’s this? The great and fearless cynic would rather be safe than sorry?” Eren grins, walking backwards behind Jean and filming the other side.

“Oh, my God, I didn’t mean it like that,” Jean sighs, stopping where he’s walking so he can adjust the strap of his goggles. This leads to Eren immediately bumping into him, which in turn leads to Jean yelling in surprise and instinctively shoving him off.

“Dude, unclench!” Eren huffs, almost falling over. “It’s just me, not a ghost yet. I’m not getting any abnormal readings.”

“Watch where you’re going,” Jean mutters, crossing his arms. Eren wonders why Jean is so on-edge; maybe he’s feeling the same clammy cold that Eren is. There’s no way Eren is going to ask, though, so he lets it slide. 

Whether Jean feels it or not, they’re clearly both a little testier than usual, so for both of their sakes, Eren suggests they split up to investigate separately. “Look, the new scanner is giving me pings from that room and that room,” he says, showing Jean and the camera the screen of his reader. “You go that way, I’ll go this way. If you see a ghost, you know who to call!”

“Yeah. The Ghost-Mythbusters,” Jean says, and Eren flips him off, laughing, before going off alone.

“The signal’s definitely coming from in here,” he whispers, showing the camera the scanner as he slowly walks down the hallway. “I don’t know what I’ll see. I don’t know if I’ll see anything. But based on these readings, I think I might.” He lowers his voice further. “I hope I do. It can be a little, um, frustrating sometimes, working so hard and not being able to show you guys any proof, but I promise, we’ll find one, and we’ll get it on camera and we’ll show everyone.”

The room he walks into is significantly more illuminated than the rest of the house, as the windows haven’t been covered, so Eren carefully pulls his goggles off and stows them in his backpack. “So here I am, at the epicenter of where the signal I was picking up was coming from,” he murmurs, panning the camera slowly around the room. “It’s really cold in here, uh, just a second.” Out of his backpack, he one-handedly gets a small digital thermometer and turns it on. “That’ll beep when it’s measured the temperature. I can tell you already it’s really cold, and— wow, the interior decorating in here is horrible.” He pans around again to demonstrate. The windows are framed by long, dusty curtains, moth-eaten but not destroyed enough to conceal their paisley pattern, and what little furniture remains seems to be in a pseudo-Victorian style, and Eren wrinkles his nose in distaste.

The curtains flutter. Eren continues his analysis of the interior decorating. “I can’t really see what color the walls are, ‘cause it is pretty dark in here, but the combination of the, like, navy blue, I guess, with the wood floor makes the room look so much smaller than it probably actually is? Just a bad decision overall,” he says, walking to the middle of the room. “And obviously it’s pretty messy in here, but I think that’s more because this place has been abandoned for a while than because of any paranormal activity… uh, 2007, copyright Paramount Pictures.”

He knows better than to disturb things in the houses they go into (not because of vengeful spirits, but because of potential legal ramifications if they get caught), so he treads carefully, avoiding stacks of books and knocked-over end tables. Honestly, the place is a picture-perfect haunted room; it’s got a faded, peeling portrait on one of the walls, a broken lamp, and those weird curtains, which Eren keeps sneaking glances at. He’s so convinced that they’re moving on their own without any wind after staring at them for a full thirty seconds that he nearly jumps out of his skin when the thermometer beeps, and he swears and almost drops it.

“Okay, that says 60 degrees,” he says, holding it up to the camera once he’s calmed down. “It was, like, 70 outside, so it’s definitely colder in here than it should be. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you all that unexplainable cold is one of the many common side effects of there being a, um, undead presence. Let’s check it out.”

Eren puts the thermometer back in his bag and gets out an EVP recorder and turns it on, setting it on the floor so he has a hand free just in case. He looks around and shivers, pointedly ignoring the curtains — not that the curtains will know the difference. “I guess I’m just going to wait and see what happens. Not much else I can do. I wonder what Jean is up to. He’s probably taking a nap.”

After a while of just standing there and periodically checking the EMF as if something is going to change, Eren sighs and carefully sits down on the floor next to the EVP recorder. “The field is definitely strongest here,” he mumbles, rubbing his eye and then immediately regretting it because this place is very dusty. “So if I wait, maybe a ghost will— is that a spoon?”

Lying on the floor adjacent to a stack of books a couple of feet away from Eren is, in fact, a teaspoon.

What a strange coincidence, Eren thinks to himself, recalling the earnest monologue he’d asked his coworker to do and how prominently spoons had featured in it. He thinks about it for a second and looks around, then decides it’s not that strange; there’s a serving platter and tea set on an end table further away.

“This is proof,” he whispers excitedly, shifting onto his knees so he can get a closer shot, “this is proof that the ghost who haunted Marina’s grandmother is still here! As you can clearly see, there’s a teaspoon lying on the floor, here, and if I just—” He leans forward more, and somehow loses his balance, one knee slipping just a little, which forces him to quickly put his non-camera-hand on the floor to brace himself. His palm lands squarely across the teaspoon, and everything stops.

Then starts again.

Eren’s ears pop and he winces, dropping his camera so he can cover his ears with his hands. His ears are ringing, but he’s not sure if the sound is coming from inside or outside his head; either way, it’s getting louder and louder and somehow more full, like it’s coming from multiple sources, all of which are surrounding him. In fact, by this point the ringing sounds more like an amorphous voice, wailing and throbbing, and Eren winces at the intensity of it, wondering for a brief moment what the fuck is going on before there’s a powerful surge of _something_ which knocks the wind out of him and leaves him reeling.

“What,” he manages to wheeze, and the room looks even brighter than it did before, maybe because Eren can barely breathe, and he lifts his dizzy head and sees it.

For a few seconds, he’s totally frozen, not breathing, not blinking, just staring. His jaw has dropped and his eyes are wide, brain perfectly blank as if it knows it won’t be able to rationalize what it’s seeing, so it’s not even going to try. Eren’s expression acquires a childlike wonder, and before he can stop himself, he’s leaning up slowly, delirious and reaching out to the hazy, radiant figure. The figure seems to reach out to him, too, in its own way; the aura of sickly blue light, in some parts too bright to look at directly and in others too dim to be visible without squinting, shifts and extends towards him, and Eren can breathe even less than before. He’s starting to smile.

But then the energy of the room changes abruptly. The cold sweat on Eren’s body prickles almost painfully, and the center of the aura, the part which looks most like a person, rears back before swooping forward, and Eren shouts and falls backwards. He’s scrambling, absolutely terrified, away from the figure and to the wall, but it seems like it’s gaining on him, and time slows down and Eren can hear his own heart beating and he thinks for a wild second that, in the very heart of the bright light, he can see a _face_ —

And then it’s gone.

“What?” Eren gasps again, stumbling to his feet. He has the ridiculous urge to ask it to come back. “ _What_? What the fuck?” He tries to take a shaky step forward and falls to his knees, a sudden searing pain in his head. “Fuck!”

“Oh, here you are!” Jean says from the doorway, laughing. Eren snaps his head up to look at him, expression stricken and skin pale. “What’s up, man? You… look like you’ve seen a _ghost_.”

Eren lowers his head again and tries to breathe his way through the powerful wave of nausea that’s just come over him. Under the terror and adrenaline, though, is a new feeling, a hysterical, irrational feeling of happiness and amazement. “I fucking did,” he pants, clenching his teeth to ward off some of the pain. “I fucking— I fucking did.”

“Let’s just hope your camera did too,” Jean sighs, going into the room and picking up Eren’s camera, which is on the floor. He pauses and frowns, seeing a line of char marks leading from just next to the camera to Eren. “What happened here, man?” He looks at Eren properly for the first time and makes a startled noise. “Eren! Are you okay?”

“Never better,” Eren rasps, dragging himself up and lurching over to take his camera away from Jean. He means it, too, and sends Jean a grin that probably looks a little deranged.

“You, uh, you sure?” Jean says, letting Eren take the camera without protest. “You look like shit.”

“Well, yeah, Jean.” Eren can’t stop smiling, even though he’s drenched in sweat and dizzy as hell. “I just saw a ghost. I saw a ghost. I saw a ghost!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> suggested soundtrack for this chapter was/is rittaikidou from the snk soundtrack (it’s not on spotify rip otherwise i’d put it on the ~official soundtrack) title from a bust ghosters vlog! thanks for reading, there’s more to come at the click of a button!! dont forget to like and subscribe, smash that fuckin kudos button, and do please leave a review and tell me what u thought xoxo


	4. The Rememberer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I told you, Eren. I don’t do that anymore.”  
>   
> Eren tries to get Levi onboard.

“I’ve already told you everything I know,” Eren grits out, glaring into his cup of coffee. 

“And you’re _sure_ you weren’t high,” Jean says from the kitchen. Eren huffs, setting his mug down.

“Yes, I’m fucking sure,” he mutters. “The answer’s not gonna change if you ask me ten more times. Like, did I seem high?”

“Do you want an honest answer? Because you might not like the honest answer,” Jean says with his usual shitty grin. Eren huffs again.

“Eren, we’re on your side,” Armin says soothingly. “We just wanna understand what’s going on.”

“I told you what’s going on, I saw a ghost,” Eren says, shaking Armin’s hand off when Armin touches his arm. “I’m not crazy, I’m not _high_ , and I’m not lying.”

Jean emerges from the kitchen, and he and Armin exchange a look. Eren scowls, draining the rest of his coffee. When they’d first made it back from the hunt, Armin had conducted a full physical, using what little he remembered from his pre-med days, and concluded that Eren was fine, if a little dehydrated. No sign of a concussion or fever or anything that could have caused hallucinations. He’d been desperately hoping that the footage his camera had recorded would prove it, but when Armin plugged it into the computer, the card had been wiped completely. A day had passed, and Armin and Jean pretended that nothing had happened, but soon Armin’s curiosity had gotten the better of him and the interrogation had begun. Eren hates it all and wishes they would just take his word for it and move on. It hadn’t immediately seemed like they’d make this big of a deal out of it, but now it’s festering and he’s just so angry that no one is listening to him. He doesn’t question for a second what he saw, though. That, he’s still holding onto.

“And don’t say you’re on my side if you’re not actually on my side,” he adds bitterly, and Jean scoffs.

“If we’re not on your side, whose side are we on? The _ghost’s_?” Jean says, raising his eyebrows. “It’s not that big of a deal, dude, it’s just that ghosts aren’t real, so we’re on your side by default.”

“Not helpful, Jean,” Armin murmurs. “And Eren, you don’t have to get so angry about this, okay? Jean’s right, it’s not that big of a deal, and—”

“Really? Because it feels like a big fucking deal,” Eren says, crossing his arms. “And it felt like a big fucking deal when there was a ghost chasing me down and I thought I was gonna die.”

Armin sighs and looks away. Eren can tell that he’s frustrated, and normally he hates fighting with Armin and tries to reconcile as quickly as he can, but this time he just can’t. “Well, you don’t have to treat us like your enemies.”

“And you don’t have to treat me like a psycho liar, but go off, I guess,” Eren says, then leans forward, swallowing his pride for a second. “Armin, of all the people who— I thought you were the one who was more open to this, you’ve always been a kinda-sorta believer in a lot of things. Why can’t you just… why can’t you believe me?”

Armin looks at him, and instead of frustration, his eyes are filled with melancholy. “Eren, I’m sorry,” he says quietly. “There’s nothing— I can’t make sense of it, I just… I don’t know. That’s the most I can do right now, is say that I don’t know.”

Eren stares at him for a second, then shakes his head and gets up from the table. “I _do_ know, and I also know that you’re being assholes,” he says. He puts his empty mug in the kitchen sink, then goes to his room and slams the door, not even caring about how childish that makes him seem.

They avoid each other for the next couple of days, and for all of Eren’s earlier jokes about the Ghost-Mythbusters, he really doesn’t know whom to call now. No scientific journal will believe him about what he saw, obviously, especially not if his own best friends barely do.

At this point, Armin won’t flat-out say he does or doesn’t believe Eren, which is much worse than Jean, who straight-up thinks Eren hit his head on something and makes that very clear. Both of them can tell Eren is being sincere, and both of them are clearly conflicted about what to do and how to feel, but they’re also walking on eggshells around him, treating him like he’s crazy. Eren just wishes they’d stop going back and forth about it; sometimes he can hear them whispering about what to do. He’d always made fun of Harry Potter in the 5th and 6th books for being such a little bitch about people talking about him behind his back, but now he can sort of relate.

Eren just doesn’t want to be pitied. He knows what he saw. There’s nothing wrong with him. One day, he’ll convince them.

But until then, he more or less has to deal with this on his own. Because he doesn’t know whom to call, whom he can tell about this who’ll believe him without needing convincing. His mom is out of the question, as she doesn’t really like to hear too much about Eren’s “hobby,” he’s not close with any of his college friends other than Jean, and Mikasa hasn’t talked to him extensively in years. She might have believed him, once, but not anymore. Eren _could_ bring it back up with Armin, who’s been arguably the most receptive so far and Eren still feels bad for being so much to deal with, but Armin will give him this pitying look and talk to him like he’s indulging a child’s fantasy. So there’s no one.

Googling around isn’t helpful, either; there are some paranormal investigation forums, but all of them are full of trolls and fanatics, and Eren doesn’t have the patience to dig deeper.

Nearly a week goes by before he remembers Levi’s business card, stashed on the corner of his desk under a volume of Calvin and Hobbes strips and an empty can formerly containing Arizona tea. 

He stares at it for a while. 

He has no reason to think Levi was the real deal beyond a gut feeling, but he’s gone on less before. He’s a very impulsive person in general, so before he can stop himself, he’s grabbing his phone and typing in the number on the card. His heart in his throat, he listens to the ringing until he gets an automated voicemail message. He has no idea how the fuck he’d explain what happened to him in a 30-second voicemail, so he hangs up before the beep and sets his phone aside.

Levi teaches experimental literature at Harry S. Truman College, which a quick maps search puts at about 40 minutes by CTA, in uptown. Eren has no idea if Levi was serious about anything he’d said at the Franks house, and he doesn’t know if Levi will believe him, and he definitely doesn’t know if Levi will even be teaching today, but it’s worth a shot.

“I’m going out!” Eren calls to the apartment at large, hopping on one foot to get his shoes on one by one. “I’m taking the train, so the van’s still here if anyone needs it. I probably won’t be very long!” Levi didn’t seem the chatting type, so Eren doubts this will be a long visit, even if Levi does believe him.

He doesn’t know what he’ll do if Levi’s on the same page. He doesn’t have a plan, he doesn’t want to prove anything to anyone. He just wants to be heard.

And, God damn it, he wants to see another ghost.

Armin appears seemingly out of nowhere and Eren jumps in surprise, as he hadn’t even known Armin was home. “You want company?” he offers innocuously enough, but Eren narrows his eyes at him, sensing there’s something else going on.

“I’ll be fine, I’m just going into the city. You want anything?”

Armin shakes his head, teeth pulling at his lower lip. “Text me if you need me to come pick you up.”

Eren exhales a quick breath through his nose, trying not to lose his temper. “Thanks.”

“Have fun,” Armin says with a small smile. “You sure you’re okay to go on your own?”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Eren huffs, grabbing his jacket and heading for the door. “I’m not a fucking child. I’ll be back by dinner, probably.”

“Eren,” Armin sighs, but doesn’t try to go after him. Eren ignores him and goes out, slamming the door behind him. He regrets it immediately, of course — he knows Armin means well — but doesn’t go back to apologize. He’s put up with enough shit from Armin over the past couple of weeks, he’s allowed to be pissed about it. How else is he supposed to feel when his best friend won’t respect him enough to take him at his word?

Eren puts in his headphones and trudges to the train station, listening to a playlist of Journey’s chillest songs as he walks to try and relax. He knows Armin is trying his best (Jean, admittedly, could try a little harder, but it’s not in his nature) but his best just isn’t fucking good enough; for once, Eren isn’t actually the one at fault, and adjusting to that is strange. Even still, it’ll only end up worse if he pushes Armin away, so he resolves to try and smooth things over once he’s talked to Levi. 

Once he’s on the train, Eren quickly realizes that he’ll have no way to track down Levi at the college, so he starts poking around on the college’s website until he finds the head of the department of humanities’ information. As hard as Eren tries (he clicks nearly every single link on the page), he can’t find any specifics beyond that, so he decides on going to that office first and asking this Erwin Smith guy for help finding Levi.

In another forty minutes, he’s there, a map of campus pulled up on his phone and zoomed in as far as it can go as he tries to find the office. It takes a while, but he eventually accidentally stumbles upon a door in a dingy hallway with a modest sign that says “HUMANITIES DEP’T” on it. Eren goes in and looks around, expecting to see a secretary or multiple offices, but there’s just a potted plant and one desk by the window, at which is sitting an intimidatingly broad, handsome man wearing an incongruously mild cardigan. He’s on the phone, but glances up to see Eren and holds up a hand as if to say he’ll be with him in a moment. Eren has no idea how long this phone call will take, so he just goes over to sit down in a swivel chair by the wall while he waits.

Eren being Eren and the swivel chair being a swivel chair, the man behind the desk has to clear his throat a few times to get Eren’s attention once he’s hung up the phone. Eren, up until that point, had been rather happily and mostly unconsciously spinning from side to side, but once he hears the man — presumably Erwin Smith — doing that, he goes red and hops up from the chair, coming over to the desk. “Uh, hi.”

“Hello,” Presumably Erwin Smith says. “How can I help you?”

Eren tries out a non-threatening, polite smile. “I’m looking for Levi Ackerman.”

Presumably Erwin’s pleasant professionalism flickers into a frown. “Christ, what’s he done this time?”

“Um—”

“I’m sure we can work something out, let me schedule an appointment with student counseling for you,” Presumably Erwin continues, looking concerned. “On his behalf, I wholeheartedly—”

“He hasn’t done anything,” Eren interrupts quickly, wondering what the hell is up with Levi for Presumably Erwin to immediately assume he’d done something bad. “I’m, uh, a prospective student, actually.”

He holds his breath, because that’s a total gamble, but Presumably Erwin’s face smoothes out immediately and Eren exhales, relieved. “Oh! Of course. Are you interested in the literature program? I’m Erwin Smith, head of the humanities department here.” He extends his hand and Eren shakes it, keeping his face neutral even though Definitely Erwin has a really powerful grip.

“Yeah, I’m really interested in literature,” Eren says, flying by the seat of his pants. Armin’s always been better at extemporaneous lying. “Especially the, uh, experimental stuff. Does he have office hours, or—”

“Actually, he’s in class right now,” Erwin says, checking his watch and then grabbing a stack of post-it notes. “West 115. I’m sure it’ll be okay for you to sit in. In fact, tell him I sent you.” His smile is just a little too big and Eren is suspicious, but he takes the post-it note Erwin has just written ‘West 115’ on as if Eren hadn’t heard him say it five seconds ago. “Do you know how to get there? No? It’s just across the green, there; the building has a plaque out front. It’s not a big lecture hall, though, so don’t look for a big lecture hall. Here at Harry S. Truman College, we believe in a more individual approach to education, so we cap our classes at— you know what, if you’re a prospective student, you know all of this already.” He gives Eren another stunning, all-American smile, as well as some brochures, and sends him on his way.

Eren isn’t quite sure what to make of all this, because there were clearly some jokes there that he wasn’t in on, but that’s not what he’s here to investigate, so he follows Erwin’s directions into the building across the quad. West 115 is the first one down the hall, and Eren turns the doorknob and goes in.

“What we must now ask ourselves is: can _The Familiar_ be considered a graphic novel?” Levi is saying. Eren creeps in as silently as he can and takes a seat at a creaky little desk in the back corner. “Some have called Danielewski’s writing ergodic literature, ergodic, that should be in your glossary, but he prefers the term signiconic, also in your glossary. Either way, I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts.”

The students, some of whom look Levi’s age if not older, start hesitantly raising their hands, and Eren takes a moment to check Levi out. He had been real after all, apparently, and he’s wearing the same type of black turtleneck now as he had been at the Franks house, but he’s ditched the fingerless gloves in favor of a slightly rumpled blazer. He looks good, Eren grudgingly admits to himself, now that all his features aren’t blurred by dim evening light. And, to Eren’s immense surprise, he’s actually not a bad professor: he’s fairly patient with long-winded answers to his questions, doesn’t hesitate to explain concepts that people don’t understand, and when he looks around the room and sees Eren sitting in the back, he doesn’t stumble over the sentence he’s in the middle of too noticeably before regaining his bearings.

After that, though, he’s talking faster and he looks tense. Eren thinks it’s a little funny and is antsy for the class to be over so he can finally get some relief for all his ghost-related angst. Levi assigns twenty pages of reading for the next class and reminds everyone that the term is wrapping up and their final papers are, therefore, going to be due soon, encouraging his students to email him with any drafts they want him to look over. People start heading out of the room and Eren figures now’s as good a time as any to disentangle himself from the tiny desk and meander over to Levi, who is packing up his things at lightning speed.

Before he can reintroduce himself or even say anything at all, Levi has already snapped, “I thought I told you: I don’t do that anymore.”

Eren opens and closes his mouth, then opens it again. “Well, uh—”

“And you have the _nerve_ to come here, to my actual workplace,” Levi continues, not looking up as he neatly shoves folders into his bag, “to pester me.”

“I’m not pestering—”

“How’d you even find me?” Levi demands, looking up at Eren for the first time. He’s frowning, which is as intimidating as it is appealing. “Who let you in here?”

It seems like he actually wants an answer, so Eren answers. “I talked to Mr. Smith in the main office and he told me where—”

Levi snorts, cutting him off. “Figures. Did you tell him you were a prospective student or something?” Eren nods, and Levi huffs, muttering a quiet string of profanities to himself as he continues packing up his bag. “Of course he did. I should threaten to quit again, see how he likes that. Dick.” He gets a pack of Mavericks out and looks up at Eren again. “So why are you here if not to pester me? No, let me guess. You saw one.”

Eren’s eyes light up immediately. Of course Levi will believe him, Eren had known right away how serious Levi was about all of this. Tracking him down had been the right decision. “I did,” he confesses, a grin taking over his face. “I was hoping we could—”

“Well, good luck convincing everyone you know that you’re not insane,” Levi says flatly and zips up his bag. “I mean it. I wish you better luck than I had.” He starts heading for the door, leaving Eren dumbfounded and disappointed.

“Levi, wait,” he says, going after him. “Can’t we just—”

“You know, I think it’s really funny that you clearly didn’t believe me at first, but now all of a sudden I’m _useful_ , so you’re doing all of this,” Levi mutters, shaking a cigarette out of the pack and not looking back as he goes out of the door. Eren follows after him because Levi hasn’t told him not to yet. He hadn’t been sure what to expect when he found Levi, but now that this is happening, he knows he should have expected this and come more prepared. 

“Why do you think I didn’t believe you? I… didn’t _not_ believe you,” Eren says, trying to be tactful.

Levi snorts, patting his pockets to find a lighter. “You didn’t call.”

Eren thinks he might be getting whiplash. First Levi is warning Eren about the dangers of telling people that he’s seen a ghost, now he’s implying that he wanted Eren to call him? Eren can’t keep up, but he sure would like to. “Well— I did, actually! Today! But you didn’t pick up.”

“Some of us have real jobs, Eren, and can’t always be on our phones,” Levi snaps, going out of the building and in the direction of the parking garage down the block. “I can’t help you, anyway.”

“But I don’t need any help!” Eren says, reaching out impulsively and grabbing Levi’s arm to stop him from going into the garage. “I don’t. I’m not trying to use you for anything.”

Levi sighs and turns to face Eren, pinning him with an unyielding look. “What do you want, then? To waste my time?”

“I just want someone to listen to me,” Eren says, hating how pathetic that sounds. “That’s all.”

Levi’s expression doesn’t change. “And you think I’m the right person for that.”

Eren shrugs helplessly, still holding Levi’s arm. For a second, it seems like Levi’s considering it, and Eren holds his breath.

“You’re barking up the wrong tree.” Levi pulls his arm free, and suddenly he looks tired and much older than he should. “I told you, Eren. I don’t do that anymore.”

“But— Levi!” Eren says, frustrated and a little desperate for this not to slip away. Levi is walking down the block to the garage, lighting up his cigarette as he goes, and he doesn’t react when Eren calls his name again. Eren watches him go into the garage, and once he’s pretty sure Levi isn’t going to change his mind and come back out, he turns and starts walking in the direction of the train station, frowning. Not a job well done, that’s for sure.

But for his whole life, Eren has had the reputation of being relentless and having an absolutely indomitable will, and just like a roly-poly doll, he refuses to stay down once he’s been knocked over. So, naturally, he tries again the next day.

Of course, what Eren hadn’t accounted for was college classes not happening daily, so he shows up to an empty classroom (instead of wasting that $5 train ride, though, he has a lovely lunch at a Chinese place down the street and considers that a success). 

The next day seems more promising, as Levi’s holding class again. But he seems to have pre-packed his bag and high-tails it out of the classroom within thirty seconds of ending the session; he made murderous eye contact with Eren several times over the course of the hour, so it’s not coincidental.

The plus side of this, though, is that he might learn a thing or two about experimental literature by the time he convinces Levi to talk to him.

Actually, Eren thinks to himself as he’s walking home from the train after his third failed attempt, that’s not a bad idea. Maybe if he tries harder to be less of a pest and shows Levi how committed he is, he’ll be able to coax him into a conversation. As it is, he’s about to snap with how much pent-up excitement and fear and curiosity he’s got inside him, and having Armin and Jean around and _pitying_ him all the time isn’t helping one bit (however, the jury’s still out on whether Jean pities him or thinks Eren’s predicament is hilarious).

He picks up a copy of the book of short stories Levi had assigned his class and hopes it’s the right edition, because Levi seems like the type to be a stickler about editions. He’s not expecting to like them as much as he does, but he reads the whole collection in one night and then rereads the first few stories the next morning for good measure. He shows up to Levi’s class on time, the book clutched in his hand, and keeps quiet the whole time, preparing himself to pounce once the class is over. 

Levi’s evidently hoping for another mad dash out of the room once he’s dismissed his students, but he’s not quick enough for Eren, who has longer legs and can therefore temporarily outpace him. “What the fuck is it going to take?” Levi says, exasperated, as he walks out of the classroom and puts a cigarette in his mouth. Eren gets out a lighter he’d found at home and brought with him for this exact purpose, smiling to himself. “Am I going to literally have to kill you to get you to leave me alone?”

Eren lights his cigarette for him, then shows Levi the book in his hands. “Look. I just want to talk about this. Okay? What you were saying about it last time sounded cool, and I read it, and I really liked it.”

Levi looks at him, and Eren thinks he may as well be exhaling skepticism and not smoke, that’s how heavily it hangs in the air between them. “You can’t just start taking my class. You have to register through the college, enroll, all that shit.” They walk in silence out to the garage, and finally, Levi says, “You said you liked it?”

Eren grins like he’s going in for the kill. Fourth time’s the charm.

Six minutes later, they’re at a diner and Levi is having tea. “I think Aimee Bender is absolutely incredible, that’s why I put two of her books on the syllabus,” he says, stirring half a packet of sugar into his tea. “Many people in the field disagree on whether she’s experimental or surreal; I like to let my students decide that for themselves.”

Eren fidgets with a straw wrapper, glancing at Levi. “I have a confession to make, actually.”

“Don’t tell me you’re on the surrealist side of that debate,” Levi drawls, taking a sip of his tea. He pinches his lips together and sets the mug down again. “I know what it’s going to be. You didn’t really come here to talk about _The Girl in the Flammable Skirt_.”

Eren shrinks, feeling unexpectedly guilty about this. “I did read it! And I did really like it!”

“I don’t doubt that. But I’m also not an idiot. I knew the whole time what your plan was. You think I couldn’t have gotten away again?” 

Eren can’t argue with this, so he just nods, wanting Levi to keep talking. Maybe they’re getting somewhere.

Levi sighs, running his fingers over the handle of the mug. “I can’t help you, Eren.”

“But I—”

“Hear me out, please. I think it’s only fair that you understand why I can’t.”

Eren can’t fault this logic, either, and he would like an explanation, so he nods again and wishes he’d ordered something so he wouldn’t have to sit there awkwardly and watch Levi drink tea. 

“First of all, I don’t have any concrete answers,” Levi says, voice even and quiet. “I’m not an expert, nor do I pretend to be. I wouldn’t want to give you incorrect information that could endanger you or your douchey friend. Second of all, I don’t even have that much experience. I’ve seen… eight, and while that’s obviously higher than average, my interactions with them range from peaceful to life-threatening. There’s no standard. There’s no way to predict what’ll happen. And if there were, I wouldn’t know it. I’m simply the wrong person to ask.”

“ _Eight_?” Eren breathes, eyes wide. Levi immediately appears to regret divulging that information, because it has only encouraged Eren further. “You’ve seen eight? Holy shit. How? I’ve been places where people have died before, like, loads of times, obviously, but I’ve just seen the one—”

“Eren. You’re not listening to me. I just said it’s unpredictable,” Levi says, frowning. “See, this is why I didn’t want to talk. You don’t just want me to listen to you. You want me to get back into the crazy ghost hunting thing and help you find more so you can have your little science boner over the afterlife and get fucked up on the adrenaline rush.”

Eren squawks, offended. “I don’t— _little_ science boner? How very dare you imply I have a small dick,” he says, because it’s the only thing he can think to say. Up until this moment, he’d sincerely believed that he just wanted someone to talk to, but now that Levi’s said it, he can’t deny what he’s feeling, and it does explain his unreasonable insistence to convince Levi to talk. He wants to see more, he _needs_ to see more; Levi can get him there. 

Levi huffs quietly into his tea, and Eren thinks he might be smiling, but it’s hard to tell. “I’d like for you to drop the subject. I’m being as polite as I can be. I got out of this nearly six years ago, and I’m happy with that decision.”

“Then why were you at the Bobby Franks house?” Eren presses, determined not to let him get away again.

Levi shrugs, looking out of the window. “Repaying a favor? Nostalgia? You name it. But it was a one-off thing.” He finishes his tea and delicately wipes the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “I recommend _The Color Master_ , if you’re interested in reading more Bender.”

“Levi—”

“I view Angela Carter as one of her literary inspirations, so you can check her out, as well. But you might have to read with a dictionary in hand, there are some very strange words in there. Even I sometimes have to look them up.” Levi stands and makes sure he has everything he came there with. “Goodbye, Eren. Best of luck. Would you mind paying for my tea, by the way? I spent all my small change at the vending machine at work.”

“Oh, my God,” Eren mumbles, getting out his wallet. “See if I ever call you again.”

Levi raises his eyebrows at Eren, then leaves, his weird slinky swagger of a walk feeling very much at odds with the quirky decor of the diner. He seems out of place just about everywhere Eren’s seen him so far, including the Franks house, and he simultaneously takes up too much and too little space. Eren can’t get him off his mind. 

Because of ghost reasons, he tells himself. Ghost reasons.

And he won’t be satisfied until he convinces Levi to team up with him and work out a system for reliably finding ghosts to observe, he decides.

He walks out of the diner with a new glint in his eye and a plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from an aimee bender short story, which can actually be found in the collection “The Girl in the Flammable Skirt”!! i personally love aimee bender and i love the exact kind of experimental literature levi teaches… what a coincidence… anyway as always thank you for reading, leave a review if you like, please read on!!


	5. Other Forms of Disaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Armin, you just cut the Gordian knot in motherfucking half.”  
>   
> Eren tries again.

“So,” Armin says, eating a piece of toast, “this new plan of yours.”

Eren nods, eager to hear what Armin’s got to say.

“It’s exactly like your previous plan.” Armin looks at Eren thoughtfully. “Except riskier, in terms of restraining order potential.”

Eren rolls his eyes. “Why are you such a pessimist? He’s not gonna get a restraining order.”

“He might,” Armin shrugs, crunching on his toast. 

Eren thinks about it for a second, then sighs. “He might. But I don’t think he will! I don’t know, I get a weird vibe from him. I think he thinks I’m entertaining.”

Armin hums at the back of his throat in contemplation, going into the kitchen to make himself another piece of toast. They’re not quite on good terms yet, because Armin still doesn’t believe Eren, but he’s willing to listen, at least, and Eren can’t be happier that he got them to that point. Armin also agrees that getting Levi on board seems like the best course of action from here on out, but more because he thinks a rational outsider will be able to talk Eren out of this than because he wants Levi to help Eren track down ghosts. Eren can live with that, though, because it’s better than them avoiding each other. He can’t stand to fight with Armin; he’s just about always in a fight with Jean, so he doesn’t really care and they’ll both get over it, but Armin gets either really upset or really cutting and passive-aggressive when he and Eren are in a fight, and it’s a bad time all around. Granted, this hadn’t been a fight as much as it had been an issue of communication, but it still hadn’t been enjoyable for Eren to be an outcast in his own home.

“Who’s getting a restraining order?” Jean says, walking into the kitchen and stealing one of Armin’s pieces of toast while Armin is distracted by all the different kinds of jams and spreads he can choose from.

“Remember that Levi guy?” Eren says, treading carefully because he’s not sure what Jean will think about this.

“Uh huh,” Jean says and scuttles out of the kitchen before Armin can notice half his toast is missing. He goes over to stand by Eren in the perfect position to hide behind him if necessary. “What about him? He was a total dick, right?”

“Right,” Eren says, grinning. “Well, he’s also got experience with, uh, what happened to me, so we’ve been talking, and I’m trying to convince him to tell me about it and, like, give me tips on how I can find more and stuff.”

“That sounds like a terrible idea, first of all, because he could just be scamming you,” Jean says around a mouthful of toast. “And also because you’re insane.”

Eren rolls his eyes. “Thanks, Jean. Hey, Armin, Jean stole a piece of your toast.”

Armin sighs, disappointed but not surprised, and puts another slice of bread in the toaster.

“Snitch,” Jean mutters, elbowing Eren. Eren’s grinning like crazy, because he’s just so glad things are back to normal. He’ll probably try to talk to them both more seriously at some point, but this will definitely do for now. “So why is he gonna get a restraining order against you? I wish I could get a restraining order against you.”

“Breaking news: you probably could, if you really wanted to,” Eren says. “Um, I’m planning to go to his house.”

Jean narrows his eyes. “You know where he lives?”

“…Not yet.”

“Are you going to hack his Facebook or something and track his IP address?”

“No, I’m— actually, that’s probably a better idea. No, I’m going to follow his car after he gets out of work and then go back the next day.” Eren frowns, tapping his fingertips on the counter. “You know, that does sound a little stalker-ish. I can’t do that.”

“Probably shouldn’t, yeah,” Jean agrees cheerfully.

“Well, if you have any other ideas, I’m all ears.” Eren glumly reaches out and steals the last crust of Jean’s already-stolen toast, but eating it as Jean pouts doesn’t even give him any satisfaction.

“Did you say his name was Levi Ackerman?” Armin says, returning from the kitchen.

“Yeah. Why?”

Armin holds out his phone. “Because I just found his address.”

“Armin!” Eren grabs the phone and stares at the screen. “Did you— did you hack him?”

“Uh, no, but I’m flattered that you think I’m good enough to be able to,” Armin says, laughing a little and rubbing the back of his neck. “I, you know… Googled him. It was on the syllabus for one of his classes. Last year he had a potluck for his students at the end of the semester, I guess, and he posted his address on the syllabus.”

“Armin, you just cut the Gordian knot in motherfucking half. He put his address on the syllabus? What an idiot,” Eren says, awed. “Anyone could find him and rob him.”

“Is that your new plan?” Armin says with a wry grin, shooting Jean a disapproving look for stealing his toast.

“Not the robbing part,” Eren says, quickly sending himself a text with Levi’s address from Armin’s phone. “But finding him, yeah.”

“What are you going to say? Same as you tried before? I think you proved that that doesn’t really work,” Armin points out and takes his phone back once Eren is done.

Eren frowns, checking his phone when it buzzes even though he knows it’ll just be the address. “Hopefully, he’ll see how committed I am to the cause and will be more receptive.”

Jean snorts, hopping up to sit on the counter. “If we’re talking about the same guy we met in the Bobby Franks house, I bet he’s never been receptive to anything in his life. When he was born, the doctor was probably like, you want me to cut the cord? And newborn Levi was like I’d rather you didn’t, fuck off.”

Eren stares at him. “Are you implying that Levi still has his umbilical cord attached?”

Jean shrugs, kicking his legs back and forth. “Think about it.”

“…Anyway, I think he’s close to being convinced,” Eren says, saving the address in his phone. “We had a really good talk the other day. Well… I say really good, I mean he didn’t cuss me out and then run away. That’s what usually happens. I think if I keep pushing, he’ll get there, because he’s close.”

Jean snorts. “Gay as _shit_ , dude.”

Eren goes a little red. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Jean. If your mind goes any further into the gutter, it’ll be chilling with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the gutter. Where the Turtles live.”

“I got it, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Eren looks at Levi’s address for a moment, then sets his phone aside. “I might have to take the van. I’ve spent all the money on my Ventra card going to bother him at work, so.”

“Just warn us in advance, you know the drill,” Armin nods. “And you’ve been using my Ventra card, actually. I have yours.”

“Oh.” Eren frowns, looking away. “Sorry?”

Armin shrugs with a small smile. “No big deal. Sorry for being so distant this week.”

“We don’t have to talk about it,” Eren says, feeling more awkward by the second. “At least, not right now.”

Armin smiles at him again, then goes back to his room, leaving Jean and Eren alone. Eren looks at Jean and Jean holds up his hands, palms out, to keep Eren at bay. “Don’t fucking look at me! I don’t want to talk about it, ever!”

Eren snorts a laugh and throws a balled-up napkin at him. “As if I want to talk to you. Leave.”

“You leave!” Jean insists, but leaves.

Eren looks at Levi’s contact in his phone. It has a name, a number, and now an address. The only thing it’s missing is a picture, so Eren sets the picture as a cute little clip-art ghost he finds on Google. It’ll do. He considers calling Levi, but decides that he’ll use the element of surprise in his favor and makes plans to go visit him in exactly a week.

The week passes quickly. By some unspoken agreement between the three of them, no new video is made; Armin recuts footage from previous videos into a sort of blooper reel, promising an actual video soon. Eren can’t help but feel like that’s a very thinly veiled threat to get his shit together.

_Believe me, Armin, I’m trying_ , Eren thinks grimly as he grabs the keys to the van and heads out.

Levi lives on the outskirts of Lincoln Square in a tidy little gray house. Eren wasn’t sure if he should expect an ultra-modern apartment or a cottage in the wilderness, but this is an in-between that somehow surprises him. He parks across the street and jogs over, hoping he doesn’t look like a crazed stalker as he knocks on the door. Fuck, is his hair a mess? He’d forgotten to check. He leans over to see his reflection in one of the windows and is trying to smooth down an impossible tuft over his left ear when the door opens.

“You,” Levi says, looking positively homicidal, “have got to be fucking kidding me.”

Eren jumps, going red, and gives up on his hair. “Levi! Hi!”

Levi starts to close the door on him, but Eren sticks his arm out and stops it. “Get off my lawn,” Levi growls, glaring.

“I’m… not on your lawn, I’m on your porch.”

“Do you always have to have the last word?” Levi huffs, giving up on closing the door and crossing his arms. “How the fuck— you know what, I’m not even going to ask. It doesn’t fucking matter. Get some help, Eren, from someone other than me. Someone with a masters’ degree in psychology, perhaps.”

“How are your insults always so creative?” Eren marvels, keeping his hand on the door just in case Levi tries to close it again.

“Quit trying to flatter me and leave.”

“I’m not a stalker, I promise,” Eren says, which makes him sound like a stalker. “Your address is on Google.”

“Is it,” Levi says, making no move to let Eren into his house.

“Yeah. Um, I like your plants,” Eren attempts, pointing to Levi’s plants. He’d only noticed them just now.

“Thank you,” Levi says just as coldly as he’s said everything else.

Eren digs through his pockets and retrieves a ten-dollar Starbucks gift card which is probably expired. “I brought you this… Starbucks gift card as a… thanks in advance for your… hospitality?” He holds the card out and smiles, doing his best to look harmless and adorable, because he’s been compared to a puppy before and he knows damn well how to use that to his advantage in certain situations.

Levi sighs and steps back, opening the door so Eren can come in. “I hate Starbucks. Take off your shoes.”

Eren kicks off his shoes immediately and sets them by the door, fucking thrilled that this is going so swimmingly. “Nice house! I live in an apartment with my friends and it’s a disaster.”

“I’m sure,” Levi says. His arms are still crossed and he’s still scowling. “Make this quick, please. I’m in the middle of something important.”

Eren, who is one nosy fucker, looks around for the source of the TV noises he’s hearing and sees a TV playing what looks like Cutthroat Kitchen. “Right. I’ll do my best. How, uh, how are you?”

“Fine,” Levi says flatly. “Say what you’re here to say, I can’t stand small talk.”

“I get it, you’re edgy,” Eren says, and is very gratified when Levi looks a little caught off-guard. “You know what I’m here to say. Do you have any Gatorade or something? It’s really hot in the van ‘cause the AC broke, and I forgot to bring water for the road.”

Levi stares at him, dumbfounded. “The nerve,” he mutters, turning to go into his pristine kitchen. He’s wearing slippers, which Eren finds far more endearing than he should, but he hasn’t changed from his work clothes and is still in a turtleneck. Either that, or he just wears a turtleneck at all times. Maybe even when he’s sleeping. Eren wouldn’t put it past him. “I have Sprite. Is that okay?”

“That’s spectacular,” Eren assures, dazzled by how clean the kitchen is. He watches Levi as he pours some Sprite into a glass, then gratefully accepts it and chugs it immediately in its entirety. Levi makes some sort of noise, either disgusted or impressed, and takes the empty glass to put in the dishwasher.

“So,” Eren starts to say once that’s done, but is cut off by another voice from inside the house calling, “Levi? Is someone here?”

Eren’s stomach drops immediately. Levi has a boyfriend/husband/sugar daddy/live-in boy toy. He doesn’t know why that upsets him so much — maybe because Levi is abrasive as hell and with someone, and Eren is charming and an all-around great catch and single, that must be why — but he frowns at the countertop, waiting with bated breath to hear Levi’s response.

“He’s not staying long,” Levi replies, glaring at Eren.

“Okay. Can you change the channel? I’ve seen this one already.”

“Just a second,” Levi says to Eren, then goes through to the living room. Eren cranes his neck, but can’t see what Levi’s doing or whom he’s talking to as the channel changes. Levi’s back in another moment, frowning. “Make it quick, seriously. I doubt you have anything new to say, anyway.”

Eren nods, grateful just for the opportunity. “I was hoping maybe you’d reconsidered—”

“I watched your videos, by the way,” Levi interrupts, going past Eren to get a laptop from a small table by the window (with only one chair at it, Eren notices, and feels more hopeful about Levi being single).

“You did? What’d you think?” Eren says, confidence rising. He’s pretty proud of those videos, even if they are a little campy at times, and even though the ghost hunting is mostly fake, it makes for damn good content, and he hopes Levi appreciated it. 

In lieu of answering, Levi opens his computer and presses play on the YouTube video that’s already open.

“ _So we have a very special video for you today_ ,” Eren’s voice, bright and chirpy, says from the speakers. “ _Believe it or not, we’ve got a ghost in the studio with us, and…_ ” The camera pans to show a tiny, wrinkled, bright red pepper. “ _Jean’s going to eat it!_ ”

“ _You promised to eat the other one_ ,” Jean protests as Eren makes a big show of putting the ghost pepper on a fancy plate and sliding it over to him. “ _This is some spicy shit, man, it could fuck up my digestive system and I could have to go to the hospital._ ”

“ _Quit being a baby, you’re not gonna have to go to the hospital!_ ”

A title card flashes, which reads _BUST GHOSTERS EPISODE 36: JEAN GOES TO THE HOSPITAL_ as upbeat music plays.

Levi closes the computer and looks at Eren, who looks embarrassed as hell. “I think that speaks for itself.”

“But they’re not all like that,” Eren defends, cheeks red. “And it wasn’t even that spicy, he just turned out to be allergic. Well… okay, it was pretty spicy.”

“The point is not how spicy the pepper was,” Levi says. “The point is, you’re worse than an amateur. You’re a wannabe Charlie Chaplin pretending to be Ed Warren. Your videos have clickbait titles and the same amount of content as a stick of celery has calories.”

“Actually, the negative calorie thing is a myth,” Eren says weakly, but Levi continues undeterred.

“You don’t care about the paranormal. And with that many subscribers, how can I blame you? But don’t come in here and talk a big game like you’re serious about this. You’re clearly not. Stick to what you know, and what you know is slapstick comedy in a badly lit room.” Levi crosses his arms and Eren swallows, dragged within an inch of his life.

“Are you done?” he says after a second.

“For now.”

That’ll do. “Not to sound like the guy from Ghost Adventures, but everything’s different now that I’ve seen one,” Eren insists, eyes big. “I want to— I want to understand, I want to see more, I want to— it’s not a joke to me anymore. You’re the only other person I’ve met who takes this seriously. If— if no one else believes you about what you’ve seen, at least I will, right? And vice versa?” He bites his lip to shut himself up; he hadn’t expected to get quite that sincere that quickly, and he hadn’t realized how badly he wants this until now.

Levi maintains eye contact for a few more seconds, then looks away, sighing. “I don’t know, Eren. It’s not easy work, and I don’t regret stopping.”

“But don’t you want to get some answers?” Eren insists, stepping closer to him. “You just gave up before you could learn anything?”

Levi bristles, not backing down. “I didn’t _give up_. It’s not that simple.”

“Seems that simple to me,” Eren shrugs. “You quit, you gave up, same difference.”

“You’re only saying that because you have no idea what it’s like,” Levi snaps. 

“So show me!” Eren says, grinning.

“Jesus fuck,” Levi mutters, glaring up at him. “You’re incapable of listening to reason.”

“It’s one of my many charms.”

Levi barely restrains a snarl, then pulls away to go out to the living room again. “You doing okay in here?”

“Yeah, peachy,” the same voice from earlier says. “What are you arguing about? Shit, is that the pest from last week?”

Eren feels weirdly warm. Levi told his boyfriend/fiancé/life partner/kept boy about him. He quietly walks through the kitchen so he can see into the living room and catch a glimpse of this mysterious guy, holding his breath so he doesn’t accidentally react to their conversation.

“Yeah. Like I said, though, he isn’t staying long, so you can watch your Judge Judy in— why the fuck are you watching Judge Judy?” Levi says, tone more amused than Eren’s heard before. He stands on his toes to try and see, and spots Levi leaned over by the couch. He can’t quite see the other person, though, and frowns, sneaking in a little further.

“Look, asshole, you were the one who changed the channel! And then you ran off to have your dick-measuring contest before I could tell you that I wanted to watch TLC instead! And you have the fucking gall to make fun of me for watching Judge Judy, I know you watch Family Court all the time.”

“That’s because Judge Penny is brilliant,” Levi defends, tossing what looks like a stress ball in the air.

“Hey, cut that out,” the unseen voice complains, and Levi just grins. Eren can’t help but notice that he has a nice smile.

“What are you gonna do about it, huh?” Levi says, continuing to lightly toss the stress ball from hand to hand, then spots Eren creeping by the entrance to the living room. Instead of scowling like Eren had thought he would, he just throws the stress ball to Eren. “Here, catch.”

“Uh,” Eren says, catching the ball and turning it over in his hands. It’s blue and squishy. “Thanks?”

“Hello,” the ball says.

To his immense credit, Eren doesn’t scream, but he does drop the stress ball immediately. “What the _fuck_!”

“Meet Farlan,” Levi says, coming over and picking the ball up. “He’s dead.”

“Is that all I am to you?” the stress ball says, sounding offended.

“I’m sure you’d rather I focus on that than how squeezable you are,” Levi says, watching Eren’s face to gauge his reaction. 

“Yeah, fair enough. Hey, man. Levi’s told me all sorts of shit about you!” Farlan the stress ball says, but Eren can’t even enjoy that, he’s too hung up on this talking stress ball.

“Am I missing something?” he says, shying away when Levi offers him the ball again. “Why is this stress ball talking?”

“You know, I’ve been asking myself that for years,” Levi says. “Just hold him for a second, I’m gonna go turn the TV off and he doesn't like being on the floor.”

“It makes me feel cheap,” the ball says, somehow managing to sound miffed even though _it’s a ball_.

Eren very cautiously takes the ball from Levi and stares at it. It doesn’t have a face or anything — which is probably for the best — so Eren isn’t quite sure how it can speak, but the sound is undeniably coming from the ball. He lifts it up slightly and narrows his eyes. “Hello,” he attempts, feeling ridiculous for trying to talk to a stress ball.

“What’s your name again? If you got introduced to me, I missed it,” says the stress ball. “I don’t have the best listening comprehension. You see, I’m a fucking ball.”

“I do see that, yeah,” Eren says feebly, glancing at Levi, who seems to be really enjoying himself as he changes the channel. Of course he finds Eren’s anguish funny. “I’m Eren.”

“Pleased to meet you,” the stress ball says. “I’m Farlan. Please stop thinking of me as a stress ball. I know you’ll be tempted to squeeze me if you do that.”

Eren immediately gives Farlan a squeeze, because he’s always been really bad at not doing what he’s told not to do. “Can you feel that?” he asks curiously.

“He can’t,” Levi answers on Farlan’s behalf, coming back over. “But, again, it makes him feel cheap. He’s really melodramatic.”

“Well, excuse me,” Farlan huffs. “Death’s a miserable business, and you leave me here alone all day. How else am I supposed to find enjoyment in my tragic day-to-day existence?”

“See what I’m talking about?” Levi sighs, then puts his hands on his hips and regards Eren for a moment. “Are you okay?”

“Ball,” Eren manages to say, helpless.

“I know. You’ll get used to it. He can’t hurt you, though, so don’t worry about that,” Levi says. Eren hadn’t been worried about that before, but he sure as hell is now.

“This is so exciting,” Farlan says. “I haven’t talked to anyone but Levi and Hange for, like, ten years.”

“Twelve,” Levi corrects, shaking his head. “It’s astounding that I haven’t exorcised you by now. You were never this annoying when you were alive.”

“Oh, I was, you were just always too distracted by how handsome I was to notice,” Farlan says, and if he had a face, Eren thinks he’d be grinning.

Why is Eren jealous of a ball? 

Levi snorts. “Your arrogance level, however, remains unchanged.”

“What _happened_?” Eren asks, unable to hold back. “You’re _dead_? Then why are you in a ball?”

“It’s a long story,” Farlan says. “And we don’t really know a whole lot. I died, then I came back, and now I’m in a ball. Dunno how much more there is to explain.”

“Uh— there’s a whole fucking lot more to explain!” Eren splutters, looking at Levi. “Do you— how much do you know about this?”

“He’s not kidding, there’s really not a lot we know,” Levi shrugs. “Anyway, now you can bring your count of ghosts you’ve encountered up to two.”

Eren stares at the ball in his hands, amazed. “What’s it like to be dead?” he asks, tone a little reverent. 

“I don’t know. What’s it like to be alive? You probably can’t describe it, and neither can I,” Farlan replies. “I can’t do a whole lot, which is annoying. Being non-corporeal was better, but then this shit happened, and now Levi has to carry me around places and change the TV channel for me.”

“How can you watch TV if you don’t have eyes?” Eren says, and Levi hides a laugh behind his hand, evidently unused to such bluntness.

“Pure force of will,” Farlan says solemnly. “I can see you, actually. It’s just a matter of focusing my energy. I’m not even fully in the ball, just most of me. My, like, aura is around it, and that’s how I can look around. Not visible to the naked eye, though.”

“Your aura,” Levi scoffs. “You’re such a pretentious piece of shit.”

“Well, what would you call it?” Farlan defends, and actually manages to wriggle in Eren’s palm. Eren shrieks and quickly hands him off to Levi.

“An electron cloud or something? Hange’s the specialist, not me,” Levi shrugs, setting Farlan on a little wooden stand that looks to be specifically made just for him. “You should ask them next time.”

“You know what you should do,” Farlan says, sounding sneaky, “is invite Eren to stay for dinner.”

“No, what I should do is put you in the dryer and let you tumble around in there for a while,” Levi snaps, but then looks at Eren, who’s still staring at Farlan and trying not to freak out every time he talks. “How do you feel about lasagna?”

“Uh, fine,” Eren says, quickly glancing over to Levi. “I don’t have to stay for dinner, though, um, I can just get out of your hair.”

Levi huffs in amusement and shakes his head. “If you’re this terrified of a totally harmless stress ball ghost, how the fuck am I expected to trust you to have my back when faced with one that poses a real threat?”

“He’s in a ball!” Eren says defensively, pointing to the ball to prove his point. 

“Quit objectifying me,” Farlan mutters.

“And I’m not scared,” Eren adds. “I ain’t afraid of no ghost.”

“Levi hasn’t seen _Ghostbusters_ , don’t bother,” Farlan says.

Eren is more surprised by this than by the talking undead stress ball. “What? And you call yourself a paranormal investigator?”

“I’ve never called myself that,” Levi disagrees, going to the kitchen and evidently expecting Eren to follow. “I’ve never even been one, in the traditional sense, nor have I ever come close to doing the sorts of things that you pretend to do in your little videos.”

“What did you do, then?” Eren says, going after Levi with a backwards, distrustful glance at Farlan. 

Levi shrugs, opening the fridge and withdrawing a large pan of lasagna. “Turn the oven on and set it to 200. At first, I was mostly just trying to figure out what was up with Farlan, and then I would go around and see if there were more, if more people had experience with something like this. I spent a lot of time on the Internet, that’s how I met Hange.”

Farlan had mentioned that name earlier, too, and this time Eren wants an explanation. “Who’s Hange?”

“Oh. I like to call them my scientific consultant.” Levi smiles to himself, getting out plates and forks. “They’re at the University of Chicago, doing—”

Eren, on instinct, boos, and Levi stops getting out plates to look at him disapprovingly. “I, uh, went to Northwestern,” Eren explains, a little embarrassed, and Levi shakes his head, continuing.

“They’re a quantum physics researcher there, but they study the paranormal as a sort of side project. I lived with them for a little while when I first moved here, before I got my own place.” This gives Eren a lot more questions to ask than answers, but he wants Levi to keep talking, so he doesn’t ask any of them. “Anyway, I never just poked around abandoned houses and hoped for the best. I don’t think anyone who’s really serious about getting answers does.”

“What do they do, then?” Eren asks eagerly, taking the silverware Levi hands him.

“Go set the table, it’s just through there. I don’t know what anyone does anymore, but back in the day, it was mostly looking at changing levels of radioactivity and patterns and then going to hotspots. Lots of guesswork, too.” Levi fills a kettle with water and puts it on the stove, then puts the pan of lasagna in the oven once it beeps. “It… took a long time for me to let go of this— this scientific instinct that I had, that everything had to be rational and explainable by science. But I can’t explain why Farlan came back, and I can’t explain how he got his soul bound to a stress ball, of all things. It’s supernatural, that’s all. If you want to pursue this, which you know I don’t recommend, you’ll have to let go of that, too.”

Eren frowns, going out to set the table and eyeing Farlan as he walks by. “Is there any merit to other paranormal stuff, then? Vampires, fairies, uh, what else… Bigfoot?”

“Bigfoot is real,” Farlan says very firmly and Eren jumps, having almost forgotten he could speak.

“I don’t know,” Levi says, ignoring Farlan. “That’s going to be the answer to a lot of your questions, Eren. Nobody really knows. Do you like green beans?”

“Yes,” Eren lies, because he wants to be a good guest and eat whatever he’s given.

“Disgusting,” Levi mutters, rooting through his fridge. “I’m just trying to pick a side dish. It’s going to be either green beans or Brussels sprouts.”

“Honestly,” Eren says honestly, “I’d rather die than eat either. I lied.”

Levi straightens up and looks like he’s trying to restrain a smile. “Okay. No side, then.”

“Vegetables are good for you!” Farlan shouts from the living room.

“What the fuck do you know about health?” Levi retorts. “You have more in common with a packing peanut than with a healthy human being. Eren, take the lasagna out of the oven if I’m not back in three minutes. I’m gonna go have a smoke.”

“With my… bare hands?” Eren says, blinking. “Is this a test?”

Levi rolls his eyes, opening a drawer and throwing an oven mitt at him. “It’s a miracle you’ve survived into adulthood. I’ll be back soon. Don’t burn my house down.” He reaches up to retrieve a pack of cigarettes which seems to have been lying on top of the fridge, and Eren thinks he must have multiple stashed around the house in weird places, like he’s a squirrel preparing for winter.

“No promises,” Eren says with a grin, watching Levi go. As soon as he hears the back door close after Levi, he peeks out into the living room, staring at Farlan.

“Stop, you’re making me blush,” Farlan says. “Get out here and be nosy like a normal person.”

Eren comes out to the living room sheepishly. “Hi.”

“Ask whatever you wanna ask, man. Do you have any idea how fucking depressing it is to have no one but Levi to talk to for twelve years? I’m literally desperate for anything else,” Farlan says. “Like, he’s my best friend and all, and we were inseparable when I was alive, too, but at least back then I had the _option_ of hanging out with someone else or doing my own thing. Now, I’m just a ball.”

“Just a ball,” Eren agrees, slowly picking Farlan up and regarding him. He wonders what he’d do if Jean died and became a ball. Probably put him in the garbage disposal in the sink. “You said you were non-corporeal at first?”

“Yep. Not immediately after I croaked, though. I don’t know the exact timeline, it’s a little confusing trying to remember. I guess you could ask Levi if you’re all that curious, but he… doesn’t really like to talk about it.” Eren glances through the living room windows to the back yard. Levi is sitting in a deck chair and smoking. His hands are so delicate, tapping the end of his cigarette into an ashtray, and he looks so small from here. Eren swallows and looks back down at Farlan quickly, because he isn’t sure if Farlan can see him staring, and he doesn’t want to be told on later. 

“Does he always wear turtlenecks?” Eren asks, wanting to change the subject a little.

Farlan snorts. “Oh, yeah. He has since junior high. Sometimes he wears scarves, but those are usually special occasions. He wore a scarf to my funeral, actually.”

Eren feels very uncomfortable talking about this behind Levi’s back. “Can you actually feel what happens to you in your, um, ball form?”

“Honestly? No. Not in a way you’d understand.” Farlan pauses, then laughs. “That sounds so condescending, but I mean it. It’s not like having a body. I remember what having a body was like, and it wasn’t like this. It’s mostly about preserving my dignity, not wanting to be squished or put in the dryer.”

“Fair enough. Um.” Eren leans in a little closer, and, feeling very foolish, whispers, “Is God real?”

“Buddy, if I knew the answer to that, I don’t think I’d be here.”

“Okay,” Eren says, a little relieved. That would have been a lot to process in one day. “What did you look like? Before you died, I mean.”

“I was sexy as hell, which is why it fucking sucks that I’m imprisoned in this foam orb for eternity,” Farlan gripes. “There’s a picture over there, by the DVD cabinet.”

“Who has enough DVDs to warrant a cabinet in year of our lord 2017?” Eren mumbles, going over to said DVD cabinet and spotting a framed photo. He sets Farlan down on the shelf and picks up the photo to look at it better. A much younger Levi has a tall platinum-blond boy on one arm and a pigtailed girl on the other. The picture is just a little blurry, but it’s clear how happy the three of them are. The tall blond must be Farlan, and, as promised, he is very handsome. Eren wonders who the girl is. But Levi hasn’t mentioned her yet, so Eren figures it’s probably best not to ask. Some of the DVDs in the cabinet are dusty, but the picture is immaculately clean, and Eren’s heart aches even though he doesn’t even know the full story. He doesn’t even have to; it’s clear enough as it is. Farlan is dead and the girl didn’t stick around. Levi must be so lonely.

As soon as Eren has that thought, the back door opens, and Eren quickly sets the picture back down, trying not to look like he’s been snooping.

“Are you snooping?” Levi says suspiciously, closing the door behind him.

Eren looks at the DVDs for some excuse as to why he’s there. “Why do you have so many copies of _National Treasure_?” he asks, wrinkling his nose. There are at least five that Eren can see on that shelf alone, and they’re all identical.

Levi rolls his eyes, walking through to the kitchen. “Hange gets me one every year for my birthday, and then makes me watch it with them. I think they have the hots for Nicolas Cage.”

“Gross!” Eren says, relieved that he’d dodged having to confess to actually snooping, and takes Farlan with him when he goes to the kitchen. Levi is taking the lasagna out of the oven, and Eren sighs happily. “That smells so good. I haven’t had a home-cooked meal in, like, a year. Neither of my housemates cooks anything other than macaroni.”

“I would kill for macaroni,” Farlan mutters. “Count your blessings.”

“Eren,” Levi says, getting out two mugs for tea. “I have some really, really terrible news for you. Ready? Lasagna… is macaroni.”

“Come on, you know what I mean,” Eren complains, biting his lip to hold back a smile. Levi can be really funny, whether he intends to be or not. 

Levi shrugs, pouring water into the mugs. Apparently, Eren doesn’t have a choice in beverage, which he’s fine with. After a moment, Farlan says, “Levi, I think you should do whatever it is Eren’s here to convince you to do.”

Levi sets the kettle down with a thump. “Farlan—”

“Whatever reason you have for not doing it, it’s bullshit,” Farlan insists. “Are you scared that you’ll unlock the secrets to ghost existence and I’ll leave? I won’t, even if you do. You’re not going to get hurt, either, you’re not a stupid kid anymore. Maybe—”

“Just stay out of it,” Levi growls, keeping his back to Eren as he finishes pouring the water and gets out a box of tea. 

“ _No_ ,” Farlan says vehemently. “I’m not going to let you beat yourself up over what happened for the rest of your life, and you _know_ it helped you deal when you had the project to keep you busy. You miss it. You know what you did wrong last time? You tried to do it alone. It’ll be different with someone else, you’ll see. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Maybe I’m not ready to go back,” Levi says, voice low. 

“How much more ready are you going to get?” Farlan huffs. Eren feels immensely awkward, like he’s eavesdropping even though he’s also in the room, and he’s trying to take up as little space as possible so maybe Farlan and Levi will forget that he’s there. “You won’t know unless you try.”

“You sound like a— a goddamn motivational poster,” Levi mutters. “I said stay out of it.”

“And I said no,” Farlan says. “Eren, you have my full permission to come back here as much as you need to until he changes his fucking mind.”

Eren startles, really not wanting to participate in this conversation. “Um, hopefully that won’t be necessary,” he says meekly, but he’s starting to doubt whether harassing Levi to work with him was a good idea after all. Levi seems to have a pretty peaceful existence, even if he is lonely, and Eren has no right to barge into his life and mess it up for him.

“Maybe she’ll listen this time,” Farlan adds more gently, and Levi’s shoulders stiffen.

“We’re not talking about this,” he says in a tone that leaves absolutely no room for discussion. “And that’s final. I’ll decide on my own. Eren, do you want one piece of lasagna or two?”

“Just one is fine,” Eren whispers. “Thanks.”

Levi dishes out the lasagna and hands Eren a plate. “And how do you take your tea?”

Eren doesn’t really drink tea, so he doesn’t know what his options are. “Uh… surprise me?”

“You have no idea how fucking much I want to just throw it on you right now,” Levi says. “That’d be a surprise, wouldn’t it? Go sit down.”

Eren isn’t sure if that was a joke he was meant to laugh at, but he smiles slightly anyway and goes through to sit at the dining table. Levi comes in a few moments later, balancing the mugs and his own plate of lasagna in his arms. Eren hops up to take the mugs from him and put them on the table, watching Levi cautiously to see how he’s doing. He doesn’t seem upset or angry; his face is relatively neutral, which is even more intimidating than the other options would be. Eren sits down again and picks up his fork, apprehensive. “Thanks for dinner,” he says cautiously.

“You haven’t even tried it yet. It could be horrible.”

“I somehow doubt it,” Eren says, and Levi half-smiles at that, starting to eat. Eren digs in as well, but he can barely enjoy how delicious the lasagna is because he feels guilty for just about everything. “Levi…”

“It’s fine,” Levi says, and he sounds like he means it, so Eren looks up at him and confirms that he's still not angry. “I’m sorry I can’t give you a solid yes or no right now. Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

“What, hunt ghosts? Yes,” Eren says immediately. “I’m really serious about it, too. Like, so serious about it that Jean and Armin, who’ve been hunting ghosts with me for the past four years, give or take, are weirded out.”

“I don’t blame them,” Levi says dryly. “You can be pretty scary when you’re motivated, it would seem.”

Eren shrugs, smiling. “Yeah. I’ve been accused of many things in my life, but never of lacking motivation. One time someone called me a try-hard as an insult, and I was like, yep! That’s me!”

“Anyway,” Levi says. “I can’t give you a yes or no. Obviously I’m still interested in the prospect of learning more. But there’s a lot at stake. I don’t know if you know that.”

“I do,” Eren says, going a little quieter. “I do know that. My, um. My sister doesn’t really talk to me anymore, actually. Sort of because of what I do. It’s not the only reason, but she thinks I could be doing a lot more with my life and—”

“And she’s right,” Levi says coolly. Eren frowns, a little offended, but Levi goes on. “This isn’t rewarding work in any way. For every partial success, you’ll have a thousand failures. And you’ll deal with mockery and disbelief from all sides. It’s bad enough for you already, and you’re just faking it. Imagine what it’s like to do it for real.”

Eren breathes out slowly, looking at his plate. He hadn’t thought of it that way, but Levi’s right, unfortunately. It’s not enough to stop Eren from wanting to do this, but it’s certainly something to think about.

“You just have to be sure that this is something you want,” Levi says. “For better or for worse.” He looks too tired again, like he had when he’d told Eren he didn't do this anymore the first time Eren had visited him.

“How about I think on it, too?” Eren suggests. “You know, do some soul-searching, make sure I’m really committed. If I change my mind about this, I’ll let you know ASAP and we’ll call the whole thing off.” He knows exactly what he’ll find if he does some soul-searching, so he’s really just saying this for appearances’ sake, but it makes Levi perk up a little.

“Yeah? That’s not a bad idea,” Levi says, taking a sip of tea. Eren does the same and immediately burns his tongue, but works very hard not to give any sign of this having happened. 

“You’ll find I’m full of not-bad ideas,” Eren nods, and Levi scoffs quietly like he knows that’s an overstatement. “So, what, you’ll call me and we’ll talk? When?”

“Whenever I’m ready,” Levi shrugs.

Eren frowns. “That could be in a year.”

“I doubt Farlan would let it be a year,” Levi says with a slight smile. “He can be very persistent, too.”

Eren feels a surge of gratitude for Farlan. “Okay. Well, I’ll try and pick up. I might be at work. Or asleep. But I’ll probably pick up.”

“Please do,” Levi says. “Don’t come to my class again, though. I don’t want my actual students to get confused.”

“But then how will I learn about experimental literature!” Eren despairs.

Levi hides his smile by having another sip of tea. “I think you’ll be okay. Are you done eating?”

“Yes, thanks,” Eren says, glancing down at his empty plate. “It was really good!”

“Mm. Thank the frozen food aisle at Kroger, not me.” 

“What!” Eren says, jaw dropping. “You— and I thought you— what the hell!”

Levi’s grinning to himself as he gets up to take the plates through to the kitchen. “I never said I cooked it, did I? But what difference does it make?”

Eren frowns and drains the rest of his tea even though it’s too bitter for his delicate millennial tastebuds. “Every difference,” he says, quickly getting a pen out of his jacket pocket and looking around for a scrap of paper he can write on. He spots a copy of National Geographic at the end of the table, then grabs it and flips through until he finds the little subscription renewal form in the middle. He tears it out, then writes his phone number down neatly and sets it in the very center of the table, so Levi will definitely notice it. He then gets up and goes to the kitchen, bringing his teacup with him. “I should probably, um, go. I don’t want to seem like I only showed up for the food, but my friends will probably think you’ve murdered me unless I get back soon.”

“Oh, are they in on this, too?” Levi says, a smile in his voice as he rinses off the dishes and transfers them to the dishwasher.

“Uh, not quite,” Eren says. “They don’t really believe me. But they will! And they know I’m here. They’re both probably hoping that you’ve managed to talk me out of this.”

“Well, I’m very sorry to disappoint them,” Levi says, turning around and looking at Eren. He looks a little mischievous, which is an expression Eren hasn’t seen on him before, and it suits him. “I don’t think anyone could talk you out of anything.”

Eren grins, feeling oddly giddy. “You’re probably right about that. I’ll see myself out. Thanks for not kicking me to the curb immediately, earlier.”

“Believe me, I was very tempted to.”

“I know, I know.” Eren bites his lip, not really wanting to leave. “And… thanks for… listening, I guess.”

“Just go home, Eren.” Levi still doesn’t look angry, though, and this might be the longest Eren has seen Levi go without looking pissed so far.

“Talk to you soon,” Eren says with a grin, then makes finger guns at Levi and heads for the door. “Nice to meet you, Farlan!”

“You, too,” Farlan says. “I’ll talk to him, don’t worry.”

“Oh, I’m not worried.” Eren can’t stop smiling as he opens the door and goes out. “Bye, Levi.”

He doesn’t wait to hear Levi’s reply before closing the door behind himself and going across the street to get back into the van.

Jean and Armin are super curious about how it went, but Eren doesn’t have much information for them, so they lose interest quickly. Eren waits and waits the whole next week for Levi to call, but he doesn’t. That week passes, then another, and Eren is honestly starting to lose a little bit of hope and considering going to Levi’s house again. Why is Farlan having so much trouble convincing Levi? Or did he just write his number too messily for Levi to be able to read it?

Two weeks after dinner at Levi’s, Eren is awoken at three in the morning by his phone buzzing with a new text. Barely able to keep his eyes open, he unlocks his phone and yawns as he tries to read the message.

It contains just two words: _I’m in_.

Eren smiles, sleepy and triumphant, and falls back asleep to dreams of glowing blue figures and the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from an incredible, devastating poem by emily pettit entitled “how to recognize when you have behaved badly and behave better” which reminds me sososososo much of levi and farlan — you’ll understand later. thank u for reading this far!! pls review or talk to me on tumblr or smth, i love talking about this fic and i love u for reading it!! ALSO: you have now come to the end of the big bunch of 5 chapters that i published right off the bat! from this point forth, i’ll be uploading a chapter a week on sunday mornings! the whole entire fic is written and done i promise lol im not gonna leave you hanging. see you next week!!!~~


	6. All-Star Combo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re like a magic 8 ball except not as wise.”
> 
> Eren introduces Levi and Farlan to the boys.

He’s rudely awoken at eight AM on the dot by his phone ringing. He groans and rolls over, fumbling around until he can grab it, and answers without looking at the screen to see who’s calling. “Who is it,” he croaks, eyes still closed.

“Why didn’t you text me back?” Levi demands.

Eren sighs, rolling over to press his face into the pillow. “Sorry. Woke me up.”

“Aren’t young people these days supposed to stay up all night? Tch,” Levi huffs. “Well? What do you have to say?”

“Yaaaaaay,” Eren says, very hoarse and very sleepy. “Can I call you back?”

“Why?”

“So I can sleep more,” Eren mumbles, starting to drift off again. “Let’s get brunch later, you like brunch?”

“I fucking love brunch,” Levi says and hangs up on him.

Eren falls back asleep nearly immediately, but not for long, because his phone rings again two hours later. “Hello,” he says, putting the phone on speaker so he doesn’t have to hold it or move his head.

“Are we getting brunch or not?”

“Levi,” Eren groans, stretching out his legs. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Payback. And I’m hungry. Meet me at Yolk.”

Eren very slowly drags himself into a sitting position. “Okay. Let me put on pants.”

“If you must,” Levi says and hangs up on him again.

Eren yawns, falls out of bed, and goes over to start getting dressed. He’s glad Levi is this enthusiastic, but it’s a lot to deal with first thing in the morning. He idly considers putting effort into his appearance, but doing the bare minimum has been working out just fine for him lately, so he goes for his usual jeans and shirt combo and leaves his hair untouched. He checks his clock and sighs when he sees how early it is to be up on a weekend, then goes out to get the keys to the van. “I’m going out,” he says to the apartment at large, even though everyone should still be asleep.

There’s an unfamiliar yelp and clattering sound from the kitchen, and Eren frowns, approaching with caution. “Is someone up?”

“Um,” says the unfamiliar voice. “Me. Sorry, did I wake you? I was going to make breakfast.”

Eren enters the kitchen and starts to have doubts about whether he’s still dreaming or not, because Marco the cute check-out boy is standing there and holding a whisk. “What,” he says. 

“Oh, you live here too! Jean didn’t tell me who his roommates were, but I figured it might be you and Armin,” Marco nods. It’s very strange to see him out of the hardware store and in Eren’s kitchen, but at least he’s pronouncing Jean’s name right at this point. “Eren, right? He… mentioned you once or twice.”

Eren nods and narrows his eyes, stepping closer to see him. “…Did you and Jean fuck?”

Marco blushes all the way to the tips of his ears, which is immensely gratifying. “No! We went out for dinner. And then he got too drunk by accident so I drove him home and he asked me to spend the night, so I did.”

“Yikes,” Eren says, already looking forward to giving Jean shit for this forever. He’s impressed that Jean had the guts to ask Marco out, unless Marco asked him out, in which case Eren only has more ammunition to make fun of Jean with.

“He’s a very sweet drunk, though, so it was okay,” Marco smiles.

“He is?” Eren says. Perhaps he’s inadvertently entered a parallel universe where Jean is a different person completely. This wouldn’t be happening in the Bearenstein universe, that’s for sure.

“Marco,” Jean’s voice says mournfully from his bedroom, and Marco drops the whisk again. “Come back.”

Eren covers his mouth with his hand to hide his very obvious laughter. “I recommend hitting him over the head hard enough that he passes out, that’s just about the only way to deal with his hangovers.”

“I don’t think I’ll do that, but thank you,” Marco says earnestly, then hurries out of the kitchen to attend to Jean.

Eren watches him go, shaking his head. When did his life turn into such a sitcom? “Tell him I’m taking the van,” he calls after Marco, then puts on his shoes and heads out.

Once he’s in the van, he gets out his phone and calls Levi.

“What,” Levi says instead of any sort of normal human greeting when he picks up, as if he’s the one that’s been awoken twice this morning by phone calls.

“Which location? Yolk has a bunch,” Eren says, starting the van. 

“The downtown one, I don’t know,” Levi says. “That’s the only one I’ve ever been to. Are you on your way?”

“I fucking guess,” Eren says, yawning and tucking his phone between his shoulder and ear as he pulls the van out onto the street. “Want me to bring you anything?”

“We’re about to eat, so no. Why are you still sleepy? It’s half past ten.”

“Leave me alone,” Eren says, turning on the radio.

“Are you driving? Hang up and use both hands.”

Eren rolls his eyes. “Nag, nag. I can just put you on speaker.”

“Oh. Then do that.”

“The miracle of modern technology, right?” Eren puts his phone on speaker and sets it on the dash, then turns down the radio so there’s no interference. “So something kinda weird happened this morning.”

Levi hums. “Ghost-related or not?”

“Uh, not really. You know my shitty friend, Jean? He was in the house with me?”

“I recall, yes.”

“Well, I think he might have gone on a date last night,” Eren says, still sort of unable to believe it. “And the guy is way out of his league, too, because he’s an actual, decent person and not a horrible gremlin like Jean.”

“Opposites attract,” Levi says enigmatically. “Is that the extent of the weird thing? Wow, you sure know how to tell a story. Riveting.”

“You’re such an ass,” Eren laughs, deciding to take the scenic route down Lakeshore Drive and traffic be damned. “If you knew Jean, you’d definitely think it was weird.”

“Maybe I should be glad that I don’t.”

“Maybe. I’d love to switch places. He’s the fucking worst.” Eren rests his elbow on the window and looks out at the lake. “Mind if I turn the radio up? Where are you right now, anyway?”

“I’m at Starbucks. The gift card you bribed me with has two cents on it.”

Eren makes a face. “Sorry,” he says. “I’ll get you a real one.”

“I told you, I hate Starbucks. I’m only here for the free music downloads. Today it’s…” Rustling on the line. “Alanis Morissette. I thought she died in the 90s.”

“I thought so, too,” Eren smiles. He’s not sure why Levi hasn’t hung up on him yet, because it’s evident that neither of them has very much to say, but as the call continues on in silence, he doesn’t want to hang up, either. It’s sorta nice, knowing that Levi is just there, and he doesn’t turn the radio up even though he said he would, just on the off-chance that Levi might say something.

“How close are you, should I start heading out?” Levi finally asks. “Where are you even coming from?”

“I live in Evanston,” Eren says. “And I’m almost in downtown, so I guess you can start making your way over, yeah.”

“Evanston,” Levi says, sounding confused as to why anyone would want to live in Evanston. “Oh, right. Northwestern. Okay, well, I’ll see you there.”

“Okay,” Eren says, sort of hoping Levi doesn’t hang up. He does think Levi thinks he’s entertaining, but finding someone entertaining isn’t anywhere near tolerating someone, let alone liking them, but a guy can dream. 

“I’m going to hang up now,” Levi says. He almost sounds reluctant, actually, unless that’s just Eren’s confirmation bias in action.

“Do it, I fucking dare you,” he grins, and is disappointed when Levi does, in fact, then hang up.

When he gets to Yolk, Levi is already there, and Eren spots him immediately; he’s sitting at a corner table and his standard all-black outfit makes him incredibly visible in the brightly decorated restaurant. He’s also wearing aviator sunglasses, and he looks the way a cold glass of water on an 85-degree day tastes. Coincidentally, that’s exactly what Eren wants right now, because it is pretty warm out, so he makes his way over quickly and sits down, gulping down half of one of the glasses of ice water on the table before even saying hello.

Levi sends him what Eren can tell is a withering look even through the sunglasses, then pushes the sunglasses up to rest on his head. Just as Eren had predicted, he’s looking very stern. “Your table manners are abysmal.”

“Good morning to you, too!” Eren says, grabbing a menu. “You want me to pay or are you? That’s gonna make a difference in my order.”

“Oh. Actually, a waitress came by just before you arrived and she asked me what I wanted,” Levi says, glancing away, “and I panicked and ordered us both eggs Florentine.”

Eren blinks a few times, then starts to smile. Levi is very strange, and Eren is definitely into it. “Okay. I like eggs Florentine, that’s fine. Thanks!”

Levi still looks a little embarrassed, which is adorable. “You can get whatever else you want, though. You probably want French toast or something.”

“Nah, seriously, it’s fine,” Eren assures, continuing to smile at him. He’d thought Levi was stone cold and intimidating, and he is a little intimidating, but it would mostly seem that he just doesn’t really know how to talk to people. “Did you also get us both tea?”

“…Yes.”

“Nice!” Eren hums, leaning back in his chair. “Living it up. Okay, so are we talking logistics or just celebrating?”

“I think it might be somewhat early to celebrate,” Levi says. “Let’s talk logistics.”

Eren nods, leaning his chair back further so he’s just on the back two legs. “Well… do you want to come along with me and Jean and Armin when we make our next video?”

“Not particularly,” Levi says, and Eren tries not to look disappointed. “I don’t know how to be the kind of paranormal investigator you pretend to be, and I’m not a very good actor.”

“That’s fine,” Eren assures. “We just haven’t done one for a while and I’m missing that ad revenue, and it could be fun. You can just wait with Armin in the van. _Or_ we could do, like, an authentic video, using your tech.”

“My tech,” Levi repeats. “What, exactly, is my tech?”

“Well, your gear. You had your Geiger counter and notebooks and stuff at the Franks house,” Eren says, trying to remember the rest.

“The Geiger counter, yes, but the notebooks were full of student papers I was grading,” Levi says, raising his eyebrows. “I don’t have backpacks stuffed with gear like you do. You need to start changing the way you think about this, Eren, it’s not about what looks flashiest on camera. Just the bare essentials, in case your life ends up at risk and you need to make a run for it.”

“Maybe you can check out what we have and tell us what’s essential and what isn’t,” Eren suggests, immediately imagining Levi in all sorts of dashing, adventurous scenarios, running from ghosts and kicking ass. Paranormal investigator Indiana Jones, but short and with no hat. Whip to be determined. “We do have to keep some of the stuff that looks flashy on camera, though, or people will think we’re frauds.”

“And we can’t have that,” Levi murmurs, taking a sip of his own ice water. Eren is pretty sure Levi is making fun of him, which he’s okay with, and grins.

He also leans back far enough in his chair that he almost falls. “Definitely not. Anyway, so you can give it a look-see, and we can soup up the shit that’s good and ignore the useless stuff.”

Levi regards him for a moment. “I understand maybe one out of every three words you say.”

“That’s normal,” Eren hums, setting all four legs of his chair back on the floor. “You got the gist, though, right? Is that something you could do? And obviously I think we should connect with your, uh, scientific consultant.”

“If you do, don’t tell them I called them that,” Levi says. “They’ll start getting ideas. I’ll probably bring them in eventually, if you prove to be up to snuff.”

Eren nods, looking determined. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Levi says, raising his eyebrows again.

Eren maintains eye contact. “Will you think badly of me if I get a Bloody Mary, too? It doesn’t mean I won’t have my tea.”

“That’s what you wanted to ask,” Levi says flatly. 

“Yes,” Eren says, smiling innocently. “I’m craving tomato juice, but I hate it on its own. A paradox.”

Levi shakes his head, disapproving again. “You can order whatever you want.”

“Hey, don’t judge me! You were wearing sunglasses indoors,” Eren accuses. “Why, by the way? You hungover?”

“No, I don’t drink. I honestly just forgot to take them off,” Levi says. Eren would be willing to bet that he kept them on because they look so cool on him and he knows it.

“You don’t drink, but you do smoke? Isn’t it usually either both, or the other way around?” Eren asks, hoping he’s not pushing the limits of polite curiosity.

“I thought it’d be too much of a sad bastard cliché to do both, so I picked one,” Levi says, then sits up straighter when the waitress comes back with their eggs and tea.

“And could I also get a Bloody Mary, please?” Eren requests, already picking up a fork to start digging in.

“Sure, can I just see your ID?” the waitress smiles, and Eren, very validated about how peachy he looks, gets out his wallet to show her his ID. “Great, I’ll have that right out for you.” She vanishes again, and Levi looks at Eren critically.

“How old are you?” he asks, stirring a little sugar into his tea.

“Twenty four,” Eren says, covering his mouth because he’s got a mouthful of eggs. “Now ask me how long I’ve been twenty four.”

“…Presumably, less than a year,” Levi says, frowning.

Eren rolls his eyes. “Have you see any movies made in the past fifty years? How old are you, then? I’m gonna guess… no, I have no idea. You’ve got one of those faces. You act like you’re sixty but you have the— uhh, you could also be twenty.” He’d been about to say ‘body of a twenty-year-old,’ because those clinging turtlenecks have definitely caught Eren’s attention, but luckily, he caught himself in time and can live to see another day.

“I’m neither,” Levi says. “But it’s rude to just flat-out ask like that.”

Eren makes an offended noise, swallowing his bite of English muffin too quickly and he coughing out, “But you just flat-out asked me!”

Levi shrugs. “I’m a big hypocrite, what can I say.”

“More like a small hypocrite,” Eren says, because he can’t resist.

Levi blinks owlishly at him. “What are you talking about?”

“You know,” Eren says, “because you’re short.”

Levi narrows his eyes and kicks Eren under the table. Eren yelps, but his cheeks go a little red, because this is tipping dangerously in the direction of playing footsie and that’s a game he always loses.

“Anyway, what do you say after we’re done here, we can go— how do I say this without saying ‘let’s go back to my place’,” Eren says, screwing up his face in thought. Levi does the thing where he hides his smile in a sip of tea again, so Eren continues boldly. “I think you should properly meet Jean and Armin, and maybe you’ll be able to get through to them in ways that I can’t, because you’ve been doing it longer and you seem, arguably, more normal than I am, and you’re also imposing and…”

Levi sighs. “Thirty two,” he completes, and Eren does some quick math before deciding that’s not too bad and nodding.

“A real adult,” he says to compromise. “As opposed to us, who are fake adults. What do you think?”

Levi shrugs, gently skewering some spinach. “I don’t have any other plans for today. We might have to stop by my place, though, so I can pick up some things. And also maybe Farlan. Do you think Farlan might be a useful prop to convince them?”

“Actually, yeah!” Eren says, lighting up. “If you’d be comfortable with bringing him.”

“Well, they’re not going to think I’m totally insane, right?” Levi says, stealing Eren’s drink once it’s arrived and having a tiny sip. Eren doesn’t stop him, even though Levi immediately wrinkles his nose in disdain and gives it back. “So it’s fine. And he’ll be glad for the company.”

“The more the merrier,” Eren agrees, even though he low-key wants Levi to himself. He’s not worried, though, because he doubts Jean or Armin will try and stake more of a claim on this friendship than he has already. “And who better to ask about ghost stuff than an actual ghost?”

“Oh, just about anyone, actually,” Levi says. “He’s totally useless. He doesn’t know anything about being a ghost and he refuses to let Hange experiment on him. I was disappointed, too, but I have to respect it.”

“Well… he can be our cheerleader,” Eren says, undeterred. “Or our mascot. I’ve always wanted a real mascot.”

“You’re still thinking of this in terms of a performance,” Levi chastises. Eren gets caught up looking at him and thinking about what he must have been like before all this, if he hadn’t been so cynical and short-tempered before he knew there was life after death and, like Cassandra, no one had believed him. “Eren. Stop staring at me.”

Eren’s cheeks color and he takes a quick sip of his tea, then chases it with some of his Bloody Mary. The combination is horrible, but he’d brought it on himself. “So are we blowing this popsicle stand? Should probably take the— well, we could go in separate cars,” he says, frowning as he tries to think about what the best way to maximize their car situation would be. “That might be easiest, but it also wastes a lot of gas.”

“I drive a hybrid.”

“Never mind,” Eren says. “I was bluffing, anyway.”

“I could tell,” Levi says, waving a waitress over to get the check.

“Not gonna panic again and double the order at the last second, are you?” Eren teases, once again testing how far he can push it.

Levi totally ignores him and gets out his wallet. “We’re stopping by my house first, don’t forget.”

Eren had already forgotten. “Right! Of course. And I’ll text you my address so you can know where to go after that, since I doubt we’ll be able to drive right next to each other the whole time.”

“Was that the original plan?” Levi says, finishing his tea and then handing his card to the waitress when she comes back. “I was just going to maps it.”

“I can’t believe you, a real professor of things pertaining to the English language, just used _maps_ as a verb,” Eren grins. “Professors: they’re just like us!”

Levi rolls his eyes and puts his sunglasses back on. Eren promptly forgets what he was going to say. How does Levi always look so cool? At least he’s not in fingerless gloves this time. “Let’s go,” he says once he’s signed the check the waitress brought back with his card. Eren suddenly realizes that Levi had paid for everything without even suggesting an alternative, and feels oddly warm. 

They go outside and Eren looks around for Levi’s car. He hasn’t seen it yet, and even though it’s apparently a hybrid, he has no doubt that it’ll be something badass and very fitting.

Levi gets car keys out of his pocket and starts walking. “You know where I live, so I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay,” Eren says, glancing over his shoulder at the van, which is parked in the completely opposite direction of where they’re going. Levi seems to be walking towards a dark grey Prius, but Eren’s sure that his actual car is parked just behind it. Maybe when Levi said hybrid, he’d meant electric, and he drives a Tesla. But no, Levi is unlocking the Prius’ door and looking expectantly at Eren, who is standing there and staring. “You have a Prius?”

“Is that a problem?” Levi says, confused. “I said it was a hybrid, didn’t I?”

“You can’t park this in front of my apartment, I’ll lose all my street cred,” Eren says. 

“It’s very cool!” Levi defends, looking a little miffed. “The mileage is fantastic. What did you think I had?”

“Like, a muscle car? Something _actually_ cool? I don’t know,” Eren huffs. “But I’m disappointed.”

“Eren, who do you think I am?” Levi says, lips quirking slightly. “I wouldn’t touch a muscle car with a ten-foot pole. If I didn’t already know you have a van, I would assume that you have a muscle car, actually.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Eren frowns. From anyone else, that would have definitely been a compliment, but Levi is a mystery. He doesn’t get an answer, though, because Levi gets into his Prius and closes the door. “Whatever. See you soon!”

When he pulls up to Levi’s house, the Prius is nowhere to be seen, but he goes and knocks on the door just to check anyway. Levi opens the door, and Eren jumps. “How! Did you teleport?”

“I parked in the garage, which is in the back,” Levi says, looking at Eren with barely-restrained amusement. “Come in, but we won’t be here long. Shoes off.”

“I know, I know,” Eren says, almost falling over as he takes his shoes off one by one. “What can I grab? Is anything heavy?”

“Only the burden of humanity’s sins,” a disembodied voice intones.

“Oh, hey, Farlan,” Eren says, unfazed. “Did Levi tell you you get to come along?”

“HELL FUCKING YEAH, HE DID,” Farlan says, pseudo-existentialist dread vanishing, then whoops delightedly when Levi picks him up and tosses him to Eren.

“Hold onto him for a second, I’ll go get whatever shit I guess I might need,” Levi says. “ _Don’t_ snoop.”

“Why, will I find a locked room full of your dead wives?” Eren calls after him, laughing. 

“No, he’s just worried you’ll move stuff around and he won’t be able to find it later,” Farlan says. “Everything here has its place, apparently.”

Eren looks around. “Like… a bag of Craisins on top of the fireplace?”

“Yep. Grab that for him, actually, he’ll want it for the road.”

Eren goes over to take the bag and smiles down at Farlan. “You’re like if Siri were a physical entity. It’s great.”

“I don’t know what Siri is, but thanks,” Farlan says. “Can I ride with you? Levi plays lame music.”

“So do I,” Eren says, “but sure, if he trusts me with you.”

“He probably does, since he agreed to resume the project,” Farlan says.

Eren grins, looking around the house. “Thanks for that, by the way. How much convincing did it take?”

“What? No, he decided by himself,” Farlan says. “He never listens to me, anyway, I was just showing off earlier. He thinks someone who’s stupid enough to have gotten killed for him isn’t capable of that much logical thinking, and he’s probably right.”

Eren frowns. “Killed for— what?”

Farlan’s potential reply is cut off by Levi returning. “You ready?” he says, a messenger bag over his shoulder. “Take Farlan with you, if you want.”

“Okay,” Eren says, for the first time wondering about how Farlan died. “I texted you my address. Traffic shouldn’t be too bad.”

Levi checks his phone and nods. “You go out first, I’ll lock the door behind you.”

This is weirdly domestic, but Eren isn’t about to point that out for fear of the dynamic changing as a result and just goes out to the van. “Sick van,” Farlan says. 

“Thanks,” Eren hums, getting in and starting it. “Where should I put you so you won’t roll around? Cupholder?”

“Sure,” Farlan sighs. “I never get to sightsee when we go driving. I guess that’s just part of being a ball.”

Eren gets a horrible, goofy smile on his face at the mental image of Levi taking his sentient stress ball out on drives. “Here, will you fit in this?” he says, squeezing Farlan into the dashboard camera mount, which is currently camera-less and therefore perfectly sized for Farlan to sit snugly in.

“Oh, shit,” Farlan says. “You’d better stick around, man, I like the way you think.”

Eren doesn’t really know what to say to that, because any potential options such as “I’m planning to” are way too gay, so he just drives home.

Farlan is mostly quiet the whole time, and he doesn’t complain about Eren’s music choices; he seems to be looking around and taking everything in. Eren doesn’t want to ruin it for him, so he stays quiet, too, and parks in his usual spot when they arrive. Somehow, Levi beat him there, and he’s leaning against his car and smoking. Every part of Eren aches at the sight of him, which he should probably see a doctor about because it hasn’t been a problem until recently.

“Hey,” Levi says when Eren comes over, tapping the end of his cigarette. “I hope he wasn’t too annoying of a driving companion.”

“No, very well-behaved,” Eren says. “Fair warning about my friends: they’re horrible. Okay, no, Armin is great, but Jean is, like, a river monster made human.”

“Noted,” Levi says. 

“Are you nervous?” Farlan asks abruptly.

Levi squints slightly, tilting his head back to exhale. “No.”

Eren watches him for a moment, then looks up at the building, clearing his throat. “Well, shall we?”

Levi nods and drops his cigarette to the ground to grind it out with his heel, and Eren goes inside, holding the door open for him. They take the elevator up, Eren internally panicking the whole way up because he doesn’t know when his objective appreciation of Levi as an objectively attractive person turned into _this_ disaster, and when they get to the door, Eren says, “It’s messy as hell, just so you know.”

Levi nods, looking as if he doesn’t expect anything less, and Eren unlocks the door and goes in.

“And then later, when I was throwing up again, he petted my hair,” Jean is excitedly saying to a very bored-looking Armin. “What does that _mean_?”

“It means— oh, thank God,” Armin says, jumping up when he sees Eren. “You take care of this.”

“I can’t take care of this, I’m busy!” Eren says, kicking off his shoes and going in. “Jean, did you get _laid_?” He’s curious to see if he gets different answers from Jean and Marco; if the answer is yes, he definitely doesn’t want to know.

“What!” Jean squeaks. “No! I mean, I fucking wish, but also last night was a disaster and I’m trying to remember everything that happened so I can apologize for it all with specifics. He— wait, is that Levi?”

Levi is standing in the doorway and looking like a tiny stormcloud. Eren smiles sheepishly, waving him in. “Yeah. Surprise.”

“You should have said we were having guests, I’d have tidied up,” Armin says, putting on a strained, polite smile.

“What? It’s totally fine, it’s not even that bad,” Eren says. The remnants of a game of beer pong he and Jean had played using mugs instead of plastic cups are still standing on the coffee table, and there’s t-shirts hanging in the windows to dry because Jean had been too lazy to go downstairs into the basement and put them in the dryer, and there’s a little tower of books which Eren and Armin had been using as knock-off Jenga, to say nothing of the ghost hunting equipment strewn around everywhere, but it could honestly be much worse. “Levi, this is Armin, and that’s Jean, who you’ve already met.”

“Hi, welcome,” Armin says, reaching out to shake Levi’s hand. “I’m so sorry it’s such a mess. Eren didn’t warn me, nor did Jean. I’ve had a very difficult morning.”

“I understand,” Levi says. 

“Armin, Levi has all sorts of cool sciencey shit to hunt ghosts with, and he’s gonna help us out!” Eren enthuses. Armin looks even more stressed, but steps back so they can both come into the living room. “Do you need help setting anything up?”

“There’s nothing to set up,” Levi mutters. “Do you see the size of my bag? I brought, like, two things.”

“Three,” Farlan corrects. “Well— no, never mind, I’m not a thing. So still two, you’re right.”

Armin goes still. “Sorry, is there someone else here? Or was that you, Eren? Your ventriloquy practice must be going well,” he says, frowning.

“No, it’s Levi’s ghost friend,” Eren says, deciding the best way to go about this is to just throw Armin in head-first. “Here.” He hands Armin the ball, and Armin raises his eyebrows.

“This is… a ball,” Armin says slowly, evidently thinking he’s missing something.

“You’re so observant,” Farlan says, and Armin reacts much better than Eren did, but still not very well. Eren leaves him to deal with that, then walks with Levi through to the living room, kicking Jean as he goes past. Jean doesn’t even react beyond flipping Eren off, because he’s used to this by now.

“Here, you wanna unpack?” Eren says, picking mugs up off the table to clear up some room. “Then we can get started.”

Jean is eyeing Levi distrustfully. “Suh, dude,” he says.

Levi glances over his shoulder, unzipping his bag. He wasn’t kidding, he really did only bring two things: his Geiger counter and a little notebook. Evidently, he’s aware that he’s not on his own territory, because he doesn’t immediately respond with some cutting remark like Eren was so desperately hoping he would. “Congratulations on your date. I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Thanks! Wait,” Jean frowns, realizing that was mean. “You don’t even know me, man, you’re not allowed to drag me.”

“Sorry, can someone please explain this talking ball?” Armin says faintly.

“That’s Farlan,” Levi replies before Eren can. “Through some process I haven’t been able to figure out, he’s gotten himself tied to that ball, and will probably haunt it for the rest of eternity.”

“Ghosts are real!” Eren summarizes with a grin.

“I need to sit down,” Armin mumbles, handing Farlan to Eren as he walks by, and Eren sets him on the table. “Levi, please make yourself at home, I’ll be a better host once I’ve— gotten used to this.”

“I’m gonna go check on him,” Eren says. “Feel free to kill Jean in my absence.”

“Hey!” Jean protests, and Eren thinks Levi might be smiling.

Armin is drinking a glass of water and looks very stressed. “So,” he says when Eren enters the kitchen, “you were serious about what you saw. This isn’t some weird joke.”

“I’ve been trying to tell you that for weeks,” Eren says. “Believe me, if you’d been there, you wouldn’t want to make that kind of shit up. Farlan’s pretty cool, right?”

Armin nods slightly, holding onto his glass with both hands. “I can’t— I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t even know where to start.”

“Neither does Levi, and neither does Levi’s scientist friend,” Eren reassures. “That’s what we’re here to try and do. Strength in numbers, you know.”

Armin shakes his head a little, looking over the divider into the living room. “What happened?” he asks quietly.

“How’d he get trapped in the ball? I don’t know, but apparently he was a normal non-corporeal ghost before—”

“No, I mean how’d he die?” Armin says, keeping his voice down. “Maybe it has something to do with how they die. Otherwise everyone would be a ghost.”

Eren stares at Armin for a second, a grin spreading on his face. He doesn’t know how Farlan died, and he’s not going to ask because it seems like a sensitive subject, but the important thing here is that Armin’s on board. He’s so overcome that he pulls him into a hug, and Armin protests because he’s got a glass of water, but hugs him back anyway. 

“It’s not that I didn’t believe you and now I do because of this one thing,” Armin mumbles into Eren’s shoulder. “It’s just— a lot.”

“I know,” Eren says. “Don’t worry about it, Armin, I know. Wanna go check it out?”

Armin nods, and they go back out to the living room, where hell is slowly breaking loose. “Make the ball stop talking to me!” Jean shouts at Eren and Armin. Eren looks at Levi, who shrugs at him.

“I see what you meant about the river monster thing,” Farlan remarks. 

“Jean, can you relax, please? I doubt the ball can hurt you,” Armin says. “You’ve been yelling all morning and it’s sort of giving me a headache.”

“There’s lots to yell about!” Jean says defensively, maintaining as much distance between himself and Farlan as he can. “Seriously, what’s up with the ball?”

“I have a name,” Farlan says. “Let’s start there.”

“We’re here to figure out what’s up with the ball,” Eren says. “The ball is a ghost, and we’re here to, you know, figure out ghosts.”

“Armin, does this make any kind of sense to you?” Jean demands.

“It doesn’t even make sense to me,” Levi says, “and I’ve been trying to figure it out for half as long as Eren’s been alive.” He stops, frowning. “That’s weird.”

“Yeah,” Eren says, barely smothering a smile.

“I regret saying it. But the point still stands.” Levi shrugs, coolly regarding Jean. “You can either keep freaking out about it, or accept that there’s more to the world than you thought there was and move on.”

“Look,” Eren says, picking Farlan up and carrying him over to Jean. “Say hi. Be friends. It’s fine.”

“I don’t want ghosts to actually be real,” Jean mutters, shrinking away distrustfully. “Next you’re gonna tell me Bigfoot is also real.”

“Bigfoot _is_ real,” Farlan says. Jean frowns.

“Can he see me?” he whispers to Eren. “He doesn’t have eyes.”

“I can hear you, too,” Farlan says. “Can everyone get over the shock of me being a ball so we can move on, please?”

“Please,” Levi says wearily. “I can only handle so much nonsense before I start chainsmoking.”

“We’ll minimize the nonsense,” Eren promises. “What have we got going on over here?”

“Well, I think you should start by getting rid of this, first of all,” Levi says, holding up the EVP recorder. “In all my research, I never once came across any EVP footage that was legitimate.”

“Okay,” Eren says, forcing Jean to take Farlan and going over to Levi. “We might have to keep it around for the videos, but I won’t use it for real stuff. How about this new EMF thing we have?”

Levi looks at it, flipping a few of the switches. “Luckily, we have a real ghost here, so we can test things and use him as our subject,” he mutters. “If it doesn’t detect Farlan, it doesn’t work.”

“Ooh, good idea,” Eren says, marveling at how smart Levi is. “What’s the verdict?”

Levi smacks the meter a few times against his palm. “The batteries are dead.”

“Again? _Jean_ ,” Eren says, exasperated. “You don’t need to keep using the hardware store as an excuse to see Marco now. So stop sabotaging our equipment.”

“Actually, it might be Farlan’s fault,” Levi says, examining it and opening the battery compartment. “Oh, yep. He fries rechargeable ones, for some reason.”

“Maybe they’re radioactive _and_ electromagnetic,” Eren muses, taking the meter from Levi and shaking out the batteries. “Armin, do we have any normal batteries?”

“At this point, I’d be surprised,” Armin says, going to check. “I think Jean must eat them or something, because we don’t have enough appliances for him to put them in to use them all up that fast.”

“I don’t eat batteries,” Jean huffs. “I just have lots of remotes to power.”

“And a vibrator, probably,” Eren says, just to get a rise out of him.

“Nah, bitch, rechargeable all the way,” Jean says, grinning. Armin sighs long-sufferingly and comes back with a package of batteries to hand to Eren.

Eren replaces the batteries and hands the meter back to Levi. “See if that’s better.”

Levi plucks at some of the wires coiled around the sides of it. “What are these?”

“Uh,” Eren says, laughing a little, “they look flashy on camera.”

Levi rolls his eyes and turns the meter on. Eren leans in to see the screen, grinning when it lights up with a bright beacon right where Farlan is. “Could you write that down for me, please?” Levi says, gesturing to the notebook on the table. “Also write down that I’m getting interference from the fridge.”

Eren nods and grabs the notebook, flipping through multiple pages of diagrams, calculations, and bulleted lists with dates and coordinates until he finds a blank one, where he writes _EMF meter from ghoststop.com — non-rechargeable batteries (Energizer, if it matters), getting interference from fridge_ and draws a picture of a mouse.

“Can you tell me about the radioactivity?” Armin asks, a little shy around Levi. “I’ve done some investigating on the more serious ghost websites, but I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“It’s just a theory, and I can’t prove causation because I don’t have a large enough sample size yet,” Levi says, setting the EMF reader down and picking up the Geiger counter instead. “It’s something I noticed and got curious about, and it’s been fairly reliable so far. Here, you can test it if you want.” Eren sees him looking at Armin like he’s calculating something, and the little frown Levi gets when he figures out Armin is one inch taller than him is extremely cute.

Armin turns it on, then startles when it begins to make clicking sounds. “That’s normal, right? Okay,” he murmurs to himself, slowly walking forward in Jean’s direction. The clicking speeds up gradually, and by the time Armin gets within a foot of Farlan, it’s beeping as well. Armin shuts it off, eyes glowing. “That’s really cool. Hopefully the radiation’s not harmful. It isn’t, right?”

Levi shrugs. “Shouldn’t be. It’s similar to x-ray, from what I can tell, and it’s a very, very low level. A normal Geiger counter wouldn’t be able to detect it, but this one’s gotten some upgrades.”

“Aren’t bananas radioactive?” Jean says suddenly, like it’s some big gotcha that’ll blow holes in Levi’s theories. “I remember that from bio. How can you tell if it’s a banana or a ghost?”

Levi stares at him. “I use my eyes.”

“Oh.” Jean looks down at Farlan, who doesn’t actually seem too upset at being used as a research subject. “That makes sense.”

“Do you have a compass?” Levi asks Armin. “A real one, not the iPhone kind.”

“I might,” Armin says. “I can go check.”

“That was another hunch of mine, back in the day,” Levi says to Eren after Armin’s gone to look through his things, which is good, because Eren was just about to get pouty that Levi was talking to Armin more than to him. “Sort of like an analog EMF reader. If you use all three at once, and you’re seeing things coming up on all of them, there’s a pretty good chance you’re in the right place at the right time.”

“Rad,” Eren breathes, smiling at him. “When can we start?”

“That depends. When did you see yours, do you remember?” Levi asks, and Eren tries to think.

“It was… three weeks ago, I think? No, four. Yeah, I think it was last month, and we can check Jean’s camera for the exact date,” Eren says. “Why?”

“Not to sound like a mystic, but if it was a full moon, I’ll need to know,” Levi says. “Because there was a ghost at the Bobby Franks house, and they don’t just appear randomly, there are a lot of factors that go into it. Honestly, it’s really lucky that Farlan made it, because the odds are astronomical. Anyway, I started to work on a chart of dates and times and moon phases and the position of the Earth and other shit like that, so we should note down when yours was and adjust the calculations.” Armin comes back with a plastic compass that probably dates back to his Boy Scout days, and Levi puts it on the table along with the other gear. “But then again, even that’s not always reliable. We can try it out, but like I said, there’s a supernatural element that I can’t account for.”

“That’s fine,” Eren says, totally in awe. “Seriously, Levi, this is amazing and so much more than I was expecting. You made it sound like you didn’t have anything.”

“I don’t, really,” Levi shrugs, but Eren thinks he’s a little bit pleased at the praise. “In the grand scheme of things, this is nothing. Hange has access to a lot more, but they have to be careful getting it so the university doesn’t get too suspicious.”

Jean comes over and sets Farlan on the table next to the compass, which immediately starts going haywire. “Neat,” he says, staring. “Farlan, you’re like a magic 8 ball except not as wise.”

“That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” Farlan says.

Eren suddenly has a thought and lights up. “Levi! Can you test something for me?”

Levi regards him warily. “What is it?”

“That’s my line,” Jean mumbles.

“Just a sec,” Eren says and dashes into his room to grab his thermos. He brings it back out and displays it. “This is my thermos. I think it might be haunted.”

Levi looks incredibly unimpressed, but holds out a hand to take it. Eren passes it over, then stands aside anxiously as Levi powers up the Geiger counter and EMF meter. A few moments pass as Levi checks out all the readings he’s getting, then waves the compass around in front of it for good measure. 

“Well?” Eren says, biting his lip. 

“I’m not getting anything, no,” Levi says, then turns his devices off and returns the thermos to Eren. “I think it might just be a shitty thermos.”

Eren frowns, looking at it. “I mean, I did get it at the dollar store.”

“There you go,” Levi says. “Anything else?”

“I don’t think so,” Eren says. “Let’s just start getting those calculations in.”

This science montage continues through the day, with Armin breaking out his fancy statistics software so that they can input all the data Levi has written down in his notebook and work out algorithms. Eren makes a few coffee runs, albeit reluctantly because he doesn’t want to miss out on the action, and eventually, even Jean starts getting interested in everything they’re cooking up and participating in his own way (which is mostly heckling, but every once in a while he notices something that’s actually useful). Eren is absolutely thrilled that Levi is getting along with everyone as well as he is — relatively speaking, because he does snap at Jean and Eren both a few times and he’s his usual level of cranky — and he’s very excited about the work they’re doing and is almost sad when it starts wrapping up, even though it’s a good thing that it’s all coming together.

“I think we should get a pizza and watch _Ghostbusters_ ,” he declares, watching Armin saving the document with all their calculations. “Levi’s never seen it.”

“Whaaat!” Jean says, jumping up. “Eren, you get the pizza, I’ll find the movie.”

“On it,” Eren says like he’s in an action film, getting out his phone.

“Maybe I had dinner plans,” Levi says.

“He doesn’t,” Farlan says immediately. “He’s playing coy.”

“Thanks,” Eren says, grinning at Levi. “What do you like on your pizza? Jean likes pineapple, so he gets a personal one so he doesn’t taint ours, but you can have just about anything else.”

“I don’t have a strong preference, actually,” Levi says, just as Farlan says, “Olives.”

Eren pauses, smiling. “Which is it?”

“…Olives,” Levi says finally. “I really don’t care about the rest.”

“Okay,” Eren says, calling their usual pizza place and getting up to find his credit card so he can read out the number. He stands in the kitchen as he calls so he can read down the list of things Armin likes on his pizza, which is taped to the fridge, but also sneakily watch Levi at the same time. Levi is rolling Farlan back and forth across the table idly, looking over the spreadsheet of calculations, and Eren almost forgets that he’s on the phone until it’s time for him to say his address. 

Jean returns with the DVD as Eren comes back out of the kitchen, and they high-five as they walk past each other (extra hard, and both hide their winces). “How have you never seen this movie before? It’s a classic, and you’re old,” Jean says, turning the TV on. 

Levi raises his eyebrows, setting his pen down. “Never got around to it. I suppose there’s a first time for everything.”

“Ayy,” Eren says, plopping down on the floor next to Levi. “Where’d Armin go?”

“I take this movie very seriously,” Armin says, emerging from his room in a Ghostbusters t-shirt. “Start it. No one’s allowed to talk during.”

“Uh, including you, so I don’t want to hear _any_ Bill Murray thirst,” Eren says sternly, catching the remote when Jean tosses it to him. “We ready? Baller. Let’s do this.”

Two hours later, Eren, Jean, and Armin, all with huge grins, turn to look at Levi expectantly. “Well?” Eren says. “Thoughts?”

Levi hums, then shrugs one shoulder. “Shouldn’t it be ‘ _whom_ you gonna call?’”

“That’s all you got from that?” Eren laughs as Armin and Jean despair. “Seriously?”

Levi shrugs again, but Eren can see that he’s smiling a little. “It was fine.”

“It’s the greatest movie of the 20th century,” Armin says, glowing.

“I wouldn’t go that far, but, yeah, alright, I liked it,” Levi says.

“Spectacular,” Eren grins. “Now let’s go bust some ghosts.”

It’s not that simple, obviously, because the next window that Levi and Armin’s calculations found is in a few days, and, as Levi keeps reminding everyone, there’s no guarantee that anything will even happen. “Not with that attitude!” Eren says every time. Incredibly, Levi doesn’t seem to have tired of Eren’s inexhaustible optimism yet, but they’re all wearing a little thin by the time the day rolls around. Levi’s unhappy with the numbers, keeps insisting the location is off, but Armin has spent the whole week researching ley lines and reassuring him that even if it’s not exactly right, they’ll end up close enough that they’ll get the signal anyway and can go find it. Jean just seems to be along for the ride and not as invested, but he provides a rational voice when Eren starts talking about hanging around in cemeteries in the hopes of seeing one, which Levi hadn’t quite been able to talk him out of.

The house they’ve focused their calculations on is in Wilmette, and it was apparently the site of a husband-wife murder-suicide in the 1940s. For convenience’s sake, they take both cars, and Eren volunteers to ride with Levi so he doesn’t feel left out. Admittedly, Levi didn’t ask for this and would probably have been fine going alone, but Eren likes spending time with him, to say the least, and wants to make sure Levi knows how grateful he is for going along with this, and with him.

“What do you think will happen?” Eren asks, looking over to Levi and trying not to keep his eyes on him for too long.

“I don’t want to jinx it,” Levi murmurs. “So I’d rather not say.”

Eren grins. “So you think it’ll work and it’ll be cool as hell.”

“We’ll see,” Levi says, watching the road and smiling slightly. “If we’re lucky, we might get both of them.”

“The husband and wife? Oh, maybe!” Eren says. “I hadn’t even thought of that. Shit, that’d be even better.”

Levi hums, adjusting his grip on the wheel. “You know Leopold and Loeb?”

“Mhm. What about them?”

“They were lovers,” Levi says, and Eren blinks. “There’s a play about it.”

Eren isn’t quite sure why he’s getting this information or what to do with it. “Okay,” he says. 

“Fun fact,” Levi adds belatedly.

“That was a fun fact,” Eren agrees, smiling to himself. “So, what, they thought a neat date night idea would be to kill a kid?”

“Some people go out and kill a kid, some people rob banks, some people hunt ghosts,” Levi says, parking the car across the street from the house and getting out. “Live long enough, you’ll see all sorts.”

“I guess,” Eren says as he gets out, feeling like he’s just missed something very important, but it’s not his fault Levi is vague as hell. “You gonna smoke before we go in? Place looks pretty musty, probably shouldn’t inside.”

“Well, since the others aren’t here yet,” Levi says, glancing around to check. “May as well. Got a light?”

“Yeah,” Eren says, waiting for Levi to get out a cigarette before flicking on his lighter. Levi looks up at him while Eren is lighting it, and Eren suddenly feels very breathless and nearly drops the lighter. He doesn’t, though, just puts it back in his pocket as Levi exhales the first puff, and steps back to give him room. It’s getting darker, but Levi’s face is at least partially illuminated by the glowing end of the cigarette, and Eren wishes that staring unabashedly were more socially acceptable so he could do it all the time.

“Tell me about your sister,” Levi says, startling Eren out of his thoughts. Eren frowns a little, glancing at him, but Levi’s face isn’t giving anything away, he’s just looking at Eren the same enigmatic way he always does.

“I don’t know what to say,” Eren shrugs, scuffing the ground with his shoe. “The last time we talked was Thanksgiving, my mom got us on a three-way call and then hung up to force us to talk.”

“Where is she now?”

“At Harvard, getting her PhD,” Eren says. “I think. She and Armin talk sometimes, you might be better off asking him, honestly.”

Levi exhales slowly, glancing down as he taps the ash away. His eyelashes are so long. “What happened?”

Eren bites his lip and shrugs slightly. “A lot of stuff. We were always really close growing up, but then we got older and started fighting, you know how it goes. When we went to college — she went to Barnard — she had a sort of, um, existential crisis. She learned some things about her birth parents, like, they died, and she hadn’t known anything about them before, it was a lot all at once for her. I think. She never really took the time to explain. Oh, plus — she was always really obsessed with me being successful and _making the most of my potential_ , but I’m a total underachiever, you know, a real disappointment, and wanted her to leave me alone. I guess she got tired and gave up after a while, it was kinda the last straw when I started caring more about making these videos than finding a real career. Or something.” He’s not used to talking this much about himself, let alone about this topic specifically, but somehow, he doesn’t feel weird telling Levi all of it; he might get a blunt comment in response, but at least he knows he won’t be judged. He knows Levi’s just curious. “I’m not as mad at her anymore, and Armin says she’s doing fine. We’ll probably make up eventually. At the end of the day, it all came from love, but she… had a lot of introspection to do and she didn’t want me there for it. It’s not just on her, though, I really, uh, I really tried pretty hard to push her away. So.” He sneaks a glance at Levi, who’s still looking down. “Is that what you wanted to hear?”

Levi shrugs, taking another drag. “I was just curious. I’m… also estranged from someone I viewed more or less as a sister, actually. It’s a little different, though.” Eren’s heart flips; he must be talking about the pigtailed girl from the photo. Has Eren finally earned enough friendship points to be able to unlock the backstory he’s been so curious about?

He takes in a breath to build up some courage. “Levi,” he says, working up to asking what happened to Farlan and where the girl went, but then Levi straightens and nods down the street, indicating that the van is on its way. 

“Showtime,” Levi says, dropping his cigarette down after one more puff and grinding it out with his heel.

“Shit, really? We bringing the cameras in?” Eren grins, waving to Armin as he pulls up and parks.

“I’m not going to stop you, but I don’t think it’s going to be as exciting as your videos try to be,” Levi says. “We’ll probably be there for a while.”

“Eh, that’s fine, we like to mix it up and do something different every now and then,” Eren shrugs, then goes over to the van to gear up.

“What were you two chit-chatting about?” Jean says, passing Eren his backpack. “Looked… intimate.”

“His voice is really quiet, I have to stand close to hear,” Eren defends, going a little pink.

“Excuses, excuses,” Jean says. “Armin, you wanna come in with us for once?”

“Now that I know there’s actually a risk of actually seeing an actual ghost, definitely not,” Armin says. “I have a bunch of podcasts to listen to, I’m good waiting here.”

“See you on the other side?” Eren says hopefully.

Armin grins. “Oh, yeah. Text me if anything happens.”

Whistling the Ghostbusters theme song, Eren walks back over to Levi. “Let’s roll!”

Levi nods and follows, unzipping his bag to get out his Geiger counter. He’s wearing his fingerless gloves again, and Eren simultaneously thinks they’re super dorky and is jealous that Levi has a specific ghost hunting outfit. He’s still holding out hope for matching jackets.

The house isn’t surrounded by a fence, thankfully, even if it isn’t inhabited, so they have no problems making it up the lawn and seeking out a window with enough give on the board to be able to work it open. Jean is the first to find a suitable one, and Levi does the honors because he’s the least likely to get splinters, thanks to his fingerless gloves. The window opened, the three of them look at each other, nod, and go inside to get to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> titled after a menu item at yolk, which is a delicious breakfast consisting of two eggs and two sausages and two pancakes/crepes/french toasts. yolk is good! if you live in chicago, dallas, or indianapolis, check it out. no theyre not sponsoring me smh i wish. also titled after the smash mouth song of course. i hope you’re enjoying the fic so far — halfway done woohoo! well numerically at least.. probably not by wordcount. see i told you the chapters get longer as they go!! (hint for next week: it's Sad) anyway please lemme know what ur thinking of it via review or message or whatever, hit me up on tumblr!! hehehe see u next week, thank you sosososoososososos much for reading :~)


	7. Allegretto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Have you ever been to Toronto in the spring?”
> 
> Heart-to-hearts gone wrong: not clickbait!

Five hours later, they’re all at IHOP.

“I told you the location was off,” Levi mumbles, running his fingertip around the rim of a mug of coffee. “I told you.”

“Thank you, Levi, you’ve said that three times already,” Armin says wearily. “I won’t be so lax with the calculations next time.”

Levi scrubs his hand over his face and nods. Eren feels awful for several reasons, firstly because his back hurts from sitting hunched over all their various devices for five hours and subsequently falling asleep in a weird position, and secondly because Levi deserves better, after whatever mysterious things he’s been through, than being pointlessly tormented by a bunch of overexcited youths who are lax with their calculations and not even getting any ghosts out of it. “What time is it?”

“1:30,” Armin says, checking his watch. Jean yawns, leaning his head on Armin’s shoulder, and for once, Armin doesn’t push him off. “At least I listened to all my podcasts. Twice.”

“I said it would take a while,” Levi sighs, shrugging and leaning back against the cracking vinyl of the seats. “I’ve spent the whole night at sites before.”

“No, I’m not blaming you or anything, it’s fine,” Armin assures. “Should we start heading out, though? Get some rest?”

“I’m sorry,” Eren murmurs to Levi as Armin gets a waitress’ attention. 

Levi shakes his head. “Shouldn’t have gotten our hopes up. I said it was unpredictable.”

“Well, I know, but it’s still a bummer. Better luck next time,” Eren says with a light smile. “You look smashed. Want me to drive you home?”

Levi considers it for a second, then shrugs. “Sure. I have work tomorrow, too. I fucked up by staying out so long.”

“That wasn’t your fault, though, that was us, we wanted to stay and double-check, and then I fell asleep,” Eren says, rubbing his eyes. He’d dozed off about two hours into the investigation and only awoken an hour before they left, and later, he has big plans to interrogate Jean about what he and Levi talked about when Eren was napping. Levi looks exhausted, though, and probably from more than the failed hunt. As they go out to the cars, Eren feels worse and worse about dragging Levi back into this and not even being able to make it worth his while, and he keeps sneaking glances at Levi to see if Levi looks upset.

“Stop it, I’m fine,” Levi mutters, giving Eren the keys. Eren should have known Levi would have noticed Eren hovering worriedly, as he’s very perceptive and also seems to hate being fussed over. “Honestly, I’d have been surprised if we’d seen something. It’s so rare that—”

“I know, I _know_ , but still,” Eren says, running over to open Levi’s door for him. “Sorry anyway. This probably wasn’t what you were hoping for when you agreed to go back.”

“If I’d hoped for anything else, I was an idiot,” Levi says bluntly, getting in. “This is how it’s always been, and I know that. It’s fine.”

Eren gets into the driver’s seat and sits there, horrified, for a second, before he remembers this isn’t his car and that’s why his knees are framing the steering wheel and he’s sitting this far forward. He adjusts the seat back and down until he has enough room and his head isn’t nearly hitting the roof, glancing over at Levi and smiling at how small he looks, all curled up and frowning in the seat. “I just fucked up your seat position, but I’ll put it back to how it was when we get to your place.”

Levi glances over to him and his eyes scan over Eren’s body for a very brief second, but Eren notices anyway and hopes he isn’t blushing too obviously. “Right. Because you’re tall.”

“…Yes,” Eren says. “Sorry?”

“Just drive,” Levi sighs, leaning his head against the window. For all his posturing about how he’d expected failure, he still looks disappointed, and Eren wishes there were more he could do to cheer him up. This had probably brought back some memories from his time doing this before, and also reminded him of why he’d stopped doing it, so Eren can’t blame him for not being in the most talkative of moods as they drive back.

Eren thinks Levi might have fallen asleep a few times, but when he glances over, his eyes are always slightly open and he’s looking out of the window. Eren takes the scenic route again before he has to go through to Lincoln Square, even though it takes a little longer, but Levi doesn’t say anything to make him do otherwise, so Eren thinks he’s enjoying the view of the lake at night and how unusually quiet downtown is. 

By the time they’ve gotten to Levi’s house, Eren has realized that he’s made a terrible mistake, because he now has no way of getting back home, and he wonders what to do as Levi navigates him into the back alley and the garage.

“Thanks for driving me,” Levi says, getting out of the car once Eren’s parked. “I’ll call you an Uber home. You can wait inside if you want.”

“Oh!” Eren would never have thought of that himself. He’d been calculating how long it would take to walk. “Okay. Thanks!”

Levi nods and walks up through the back yard to the house. Eren hasn’t been in this way before, and he glances around at all the modest shrubs and trees and flowerbeds and thinks about how many of them came with the house and how many of them Levi might have planted himself. He looks up at the house, too, and wonders which window looks out from Levi’s room.

“How’d it go?” Farlan asks when they come in.

Levi pulls off his shoes and goes through to the kitchen. “Guess.”

“Aw, man. Sorry,” Farlan says. “Is that Eren?”

“Mm. He drove me home because I can barely keep my eyes open.”

“Hi,” Eren says, taking his shoes off as well and walking over to set them by the front door. “Levi, I can call my own Uber, you just go sleep.”

“I said I’d call you one, I’ll call you one,” Levi says. “You want anything to drink?”

“No, I’m fine, thanks,” Eren says, sliding over in his sock feet to the kitchen. Levi is making himself tea, and Eren wants so badly to be close, to see if his arms fit around Levi as perfectly as he thinks they might, because Levi looks small and tired and hugs always cheer Eren up. Levi gets out his phone as he waits for the water to boil, evidently calling the Uber, and glances up at Eren when he’s done.

“Next Wednesday,” Levi says, “I’m leading a writing seminar before my class.”

Eren blinks. “Sounds… like a fun time?”

“It’s not. They’re dreary as hell.” Levi looks down at his mug, fiddling with the string of the teabag. “I could use some company afterwards.”

“Oh.” Eren bites his lip, smiling slightly. “I can meet you for lunch?”

“Okay,” Levi says with a shrug, as if he wasn’t the one who’d suggested it. He turns around to pour water into his cup, then glances over at his phone, which has just buzzed. “Car’s here.”

“Thanks,” Eren says, going over to the front door to get his shoes. “I’ll text you when I make it back.”

Levi picks up his steeping cup and comes out to stand in the doorway of the kitchen. “Do. Tell Armin I’m sorry for being so short-tempered with him.”

“I will,” Eren says and puts his shoes on. He straightens up, smiling even though he’s also worn out and half-asleep. “Levi. We’ll get them next time.”

“Good night, Eren,” Levi says quietly, tugging on the string so his tea brews faster. 

In another world, Eren goes over and kisses Levi on the cheek before leaving, but in this one, he’s already put on his shoes and doesn’t want to track dirt all over Levi’s nice hardwood floor, so he just goes out to the car waiting on the street.

He texts Levi when he gets back to his apartment, but he doesn’t get a text in response, probably because Levi is already asleep. Jean and Armin have both gone to bed as well, and Eren tries not to feel guilty for roping his friends into this along with him. It’s not like he forced them to come along, he tells himself as he strips and gets into bed. Levi, either, but he feels worse about that because there’s a history there. He’ll make it up to everyone, he decides firmly as he falls asleep. He’ll prove himself. He’ll make it right.

Of course, Eren has work next Wednesday, so he spends the whole week pleading with his coworkers to trade shifts so he can go get lunch with Levi. It’ll be the first time they hang out for non-ghostly reasons, and Eren can barely wait. He isn’t sure how Levi feels about him, because Levi will go from tolerating him to being all cutting and condescending in a matter of seconds, but that might also just be his personality, and Eren is willing to take his chances. He thinks it might end up being worth it.

Levi texts him telling Eren to meet him in front of the main building of the college at noon, and Eren decides to take the train because he’s deprived Jean and Armin of the van enough lately (not that either of them uses it much, but it’s the thought that counts). As a result, he’s a few minutes late and runs from the train station, ending up out of breath and wind-swept when he makes it there. Levi is holding a small paper bag and smoking, and he stubs his cigarette out when he sees Eren. “You’re late.”

“Missed my train,” Eren explains, smiling breathlessly at him. “Sorry. Hi!”

“Hello,” Levi says. Eren thinks he looks a little pleased to see him. “Let’s go sit somewhere.”

“Okay,” Eren says and happily follows him. “This is a pretty nice area, you know. Nice campus, too.”

Levi glances up at the buildings they’re walking past. “It’s better than most. I’ve grown fond of it.”

“How long have you been teaching here?” Eren asks, taking a second to very subtly check Levi out as they walk. Same outfit as usual, but it looks as good on him as it always does. 

Levi hums in thought. “Five years or so. Maybe six. I’d lived in Chicago for a while up until then, though.”

“You know, I think you might have lived here longer than I have, then,” Eren laughs. “I just moved for college and stuck around.”

“Where did you live before?”

“Colorado,” Eren replies, following Levi up a flight of stairs to a pleasant little overlook with some benches and potted plants. “Born and raised. Can’t you tell?”

Levi gives Eren a look as they sit down, and Eren laughs.

“Jean’s from LA, which is a little more obvious.” He bites his lip, not sure if it’ll be okay to ask Levi where he’s from. Better not; Levi seems to like his secrets. Levi opens the bag he’d brought and withdraws a sandwich and a bag of chips, offering the latter to Eren. Eren hasn’t eaten yet, so he takes it gratefully. “How was the writing seminar?”

“Horrible,” Levi says, unwrapping his sandwich. “If I never see another dangling modifier again it’ll be too soon. We’re very understaffed, so I have to do a couple of these seminars every year. Erwin hates it, because I tend to… not be the gentlest of writing coaches.”

“You’re a really good professor, though,” Eren says, already halfway through his bag of chips.

Levi glances at him, visibly surprised. “What? You think so?”

Eren nods, smiling. “And your students seem to like you.”

Levi frowns and looks down at his sandwich. “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. I’m not much of a leader, that’s all.”

“I’d have loved to take your class, and I’m not even that into literature,” Eren says with a shrug, finishing off his chips and licking his thumb to get the salt off.

Levi tsks and gives Eren a napkin. “I’m flattered. Well, if my students do really like me, they should start participating more so I don’t have to lecture all the time. It’s supposed to be a discussion class.” In the exact same tone of voice, without even leaving enough of a pause to indicate a change in subject, he says, “Why haven’t you asked me how Farlan died?”

Eren chokes slightly, looking sharply at Levi, but Levi’s face looks totally neutral. “It… seems like a sore subject. Do you want me to ask?”

Levi nods, still looking at Eren evenly. 

Eren isn’t sure if this is a trap, but he doesn’t know why it would be. “Okay. Levi, how did Farlan die?”

“He got hit by a car,” Levi says emotionlessly. “In our third year at university.”

Eren swallows. “Tell me,” he says, more gently.

Levi finishes his sandwich and neatly puts the wrapper and napkins back into the bag. “Have you ever been to Toronto in the spring?”

“Uh,” Eren says, totally thrown off. “No.”

“It’s lovely,” Levi says, looking out over the street. His voice is still very calm. “Not too cold, not too hot. The air is clear, there are plenty of parks to waste time in, especially in the area where the university is. We were finished with our latest round of exams and were going for a walk through the city. I can’t even remember what we were talking about. It wasn’t quite an argument, but we were disagreeing about something. In a friendly way, though, so we were laughing, and I’d just made some really spectacular point and I stepped into the street without looking.”

“Jesus,” Eren says weakly.

“And he pushed me out of the way,” Levi says. “He jumped out after me and pushed me out of the way. The car was blue and it didn’t stop.” His voice wavers for the first time, but he keeps going anyway like he can’t stop himself from talking. “He fell. His spine was broken, but he was still alive. The cars were still coming, but they were seeing that something had happened and were going around us. Someone called an ambulance. I wanted to get him out of the way because I didn’t want anything else to happen, I didn’t want it to get worse, so I pulled him out onto the sidewalk so we wouldn’t be in oncoming traffic.”

“Levi…”

“I didn’t know,” Levi continues, voice shaking again, “that you’re not supposed to move people with spine injuries like that. That it could make the difference between life and death. He’d lost consciousness by then, so he couldn’t tell me if he still had feeling in his legs or anything. The ambulance came, we went to the hospital, I called Isabel. They kept him on life support for two days before—” His voice breaks completely and he stops, fumbling to get his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He puts one in his mouth and gets out a lighter, but his hands are shaking and his thumb keeps slipping off the sparkwheel and he can’t get a flame. “Fuck.”

Eren reaches out and covers Levi’s hands with his own, keeping them still. He stays like that for a moment, then takes the lighter from Levi and lights his cigarette for him. He’s picturing it, but he wishes he weren’t, because the thought of Levi and the handsome blond boy from the picture laughing one second and covered in blood and dying the next is too awful to endure.

Levi closes his eyes as he takes his first drag, then exhales shakily. “He was there for two days,” he says, more quietly.

“You don’t have to tell—”

“But then everything started failing. They couldn’t stop it. He was dead within six hours after that.” Levi opens his eyes and watches the smoke from his cigarette curling into the air. “When I got home from his funeral, he was in my room. His eyes were closed and it was like he was asleep; he didn’t react when I tried to talk to him. He was there during the day, too, but the light made him almost invisible. I thought I was going crazy, and that didn’t get any better when he woke up and started talking. Isabel didn’t believe me, and she didn’t want to come see for herself. She thought it was my idea of a joke, that my way of coping with what had happened was to make life very difficult for everyone else. Enough time went by that she started to heal, but I was still talking about how his ghost was in my room, and that made it harder for her to move on. She was worried about me, but she couldn’t be around me anymore, which I understand. It was too upsetting for her. I mean, one of her best friends was dead and the other had lost his mind. She asked me to stop calling her. I stopped. Then he got transferred to the ball, I finished university, and I moved away the first chance I got. I met Hange on a ghost forum shortly after Farlan first appeared in my room, and we became close enough that they offered to let me crash at their place until I found my bearings, got my shit together. Everything after that doesn’t really matter.”

Eren doesn’t know what to say. Levi is finishing his cigarette and not looking at him. 

“I’ll never know if it’s my fault he’s dead,” Levi says bluntly in another moment. His voice is neutral again, flat, uncomfortably calm. “The doctors couldn’t be sure if he’d have survived if I hadn’t moved him out of the road. Maybe he’d have gotten run over again and died on impact, who’s to say. But I have to live with that choice every day, because, you know. Ball.”

Eren’s staring at Levi, devastated. He doesn’t know how Levi can talk about this so openly, even if it’s been twelve years, and he wants nothing more than to tell him honestly how strong he thinks he is for dealing with it as well as he does. “Levi—”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Levi says, dropping his cigarette to the ground. “I just wanted you to know.”

“Thank you,” Eren says finally, and Levi looks at him, guarded. “Thank you for telling me.”

“It’s fine,” Levi says, sounding like he means it. “Twelve years is a long time. And he forgives me. We talked about it a lot, at first, and he forgives me. I’m luckier than most, anyway. He’s still around, even if he’s now made of foam and the size of an orange.”

Eren laughs quietly, scooting a little closer to Levi on the bench. “I was in my third year of college when I started doing the ghost thing, too, actually.”

“Is that so,” Levi murmurs. Eren thinks that might have been the right thing to say, because Levi doesn’t look as hollow as he had a few minutes ago.

“Yeah. I got really drunk at a party and I was walking home and I took a wrong turn and got lost. And I thought I saw a ghost, but it was probably just a tree. So I told Jean about it, and we went back the next day and filmed it just for fun, and we posted it online and it unexpectedly got popular and the rest is history.” Eren smiles at Levi, still really fucking sad on his behalf but not knowing what to do, and presses their knees together. 

Levi doesn’t react, but he doesn’t pull away, either. “And now you’re the Bust Ghosters.”

“And now we’re the Bust Ghosters,” Eren grins.

Levi shakes his head. “What a terrible name.”

“I love it, I think it’s so clever,” Eren defends.

“Of course you do.” Levi puts his pack of cigarettes back in his pocket. He looks thoughtful, still, like he might say something else, so Eren keeps quiet. Finally, Levi says, “He was going to be a pilot.”

“Yeah?” Eren thinks about it for a second. “Wouldn’t he have been too tall?”

Levi snorts, and he looks just a little misty-eyed, but it might be a trick of the light. He’s smiling. “I’ll tell him you said that.” He checks his phone and stands up. “I have to go, or I’ll be late to class.”

“Duty calls,” Eren hums, standing up as well. He really wants to hug Levi, but doubts he’d be well-received. “When am I seeing you again?”

“I’ll be in touch,” Levi says. “Check the spreadsheet.”

“Okay,” Eren nods. “Armin said he had some stuff for you to look at, I’ll pass that along when I get the chance.”

Levi nods, looking up at Eren. They stand there for just a beat too long, looking at each other, and Eren doesn’t want to look away, so Levi has to make the first move and walk past him. “Thanks for stopping by.”

“Have fun in class!” Eren says, smiling. He hates to see Levi go, especially because Levi is sad, but he also loves to watch him leave. He takes the train home, and when he gets there, Jean is sitting in the living room and pouting.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” Jean says. “Where have you been?”

“Levi and I had lunch,” Eren says, taking off his shoes and hanging up his jacket. “What crawled up your ass, what’s with the face?”

Jean huffs. “This is just my face. What’d you have for lunch?”

“Well, Levi had lunch, I just had chips,” Eren amends, going through to the kitchen to find something else to eat. “Seriously, what’s up?”

“You’ve been hanging out with Levi a lot lately,” Jean says.

Eren goes a little red, getting a carton of orange juice out of the fridge and drinking directly from it. “Yeah, so what?”

“So nothing.” Jean shuts up again, but Eren can hear his frown from the kitchen. “I’m still your best friend, right?”

“Jean,” Eren gasps, as melodramatic as he can manage, and runs back out to the living room. “Of _course_.”

“Okay,” Jean says, crossing his arms and still frowning. “Good.”

“Levi’s not competition, don’t worry,” Eren soothes. “I don’t hate anyone more than I hate you, you know that.”

“Just checking,” Jean says. “Go back to whatever it was you were doing.”

“I was drinking your orange juice,” Eren says with a shitty grin, and Jean rolls his eyes, throwing a battery at him. Eren dodges easily and goes to his room, laughing, and pulls up the spreadsheet Armin emailed him when he gets there. “Hey, you know what I learned about Levi today?” he says, loudly enough that Jean will be able to hear.

“What?” Jean calls back.

“He’s from _Canada_ ,” Eren says.

Jean laughs. “Explains why he’s so weird.”

“Not why he’s short, though,” Eren says, rolling over on his bed and taking his computer with him. He’s amazed and honored that Levi had been so honest with him about the whole Farlan story, but it was also probably really therapeutic for Levi to be able to get it all out. Either way, he’s still thinking about it, and he texts Levi the ghost emoji just to let him know he’s on his mind. Levi’s got read receipts on and he reads it but doesn’t reply, but Eren hopes it at least made him smile.

According to the spreadsheet, the next possible window for what Armin has been calling a “paranormal event” is in two weeks, with more over the course of the subsequent week as the lunar cycle continues. If Eren had been optimistic before, he’s even more optimistic now, even though he knows it’s more likely than not that nothing will happen.

His optimism, Levi makes it very clear after their next attempt is once again unsuccessful, is misplaced; he praises Jean’s wariness, and Jean pretends to be grouchy but Eren can tell that he’s over the moon anyway. Armin and Levi spend a while adjusting the algorithm and doing research on hauntings in the Chicago area, but still to no avail — their third try is also fruitless.

It’s pretty dull work, honestly, and Levi was right, it has very little in common with the fast-paced thrills Jean and Eren had been seeking before. Maybe that’s why, on their fourth total attempt so far, when Jean brings out an EVP, Eren doesn’t protest, just turns on his camera.

“What are you doing?” Levi asks, frowning.

Eren shrugs. “Passing the time. Jean, is the recording on there?”

Jean lifts it up to his ear to listen, then nods. “Yep. Spookyghost.mp3 is go.”

“Nice,” Eren says. “Levi, you wanna be in this one?”

“No,” Levi says. He looks pissed, but Eren’s gotten his resting face confused with his angry face before, so he doesn’t think anything of it. 

Eren and Jean nod at each other, then launch into their usual routine. They play the EVP back, Eren turning the volume up all the way so the camera’s microphone can pick up the muffled whispering they’d pre-recorded, and he and Jean argue over that for a while, then get some shaky-cam footage of them running through the downstairs. At some point during this, Levi gets up and goes out to the other room to have a smoke, and he still hasn’t come back by the time Eren and Jean decide they’ve got enough for a video.

“I’m gonna go see if he’s okay,” Eren says, turning off his camera and giving it to Jean. “He looked upset.”

“I think that’s just his face, dude,” Jean says. “I’ll yell if a ghost shows up.”

“Thanks.” Eren goes out in search of Levi and finds him sitting in the adjacent room, smoking and reading a book by the light of his phone. “Hey, you okay?”

Levi looks up at him and closes the book. “Are you done?”

“Yeah, just finished.” Eren knows Levi is an introvert, and he and Jean can be a lot to deal with sometimes so he doesn’t blame him for needing some time alone every once in a while, but this feels different. “What are you reading?”

“Seemed like a great video,” Levi says. “I’m sure it’ll get lots of views.”

Eren raises his eyebrows and shrugs. “I mean, maybe. If you wanted to be in it you could have said.”

“I don’t want— you’re still not taking this seriously, are you,” Levi says, standing up and putting his cigarette out. This is new territory, and Eren is very apprehensive about entering it; he doesn’t know what set Levi off, but he doesn’t want to upset him further.

“I am,” Eren says. “The videos pay the bills, it doesn’t mean I’m not serious about this.”

Levi shakes his head, taking a step forward. “But you’re not. It’s all a game to you. You’ll be tired of it in another month and go back to how it was before.”

“Okay, I don’t think that’s fair,” Eren frowns, having fully intended to defuse the situation, but that stings. “I’m gonna see this through until the end.”

“You’re _already_ bored of it,” Levi insists.

“Just because it’s boring doesn’t mean I’m bored,” Eren disagrees. “I know it’ll be worth it. It might take a while, sure, but—”

“What’s ‘a while’ to you? I don’t think you’re prepared to do this for a year before you get any results,” Levi says flatly. “That’s how long it could take, if not more.”

“Okay, so it’ll take a year,” Eren shrugs, still frowning. “I’m not going anywhere. Where’s this coming from?”

“Years of experience,” Levi says. “Is your happy-go-lucky ‘we’ll definitely see one this time!’ thing an act for the cameras, too? Any excuse to get more YouTube views, I guess.”

Eren’s eyes flash and he feels himself starting to actually get angry. “That’s not fucking true. I’m telling you I’m committed to this, why don’t you—”

“At this point, Armin’s more dedicated than you are, and he won’t even come into the houses,” Levi says. “You say you’re committed, but you don’t even know what that means. I’ve sacrificed so much to get to where I am today, and you’re still doing whatever that was.”

“Holy fuck, Levi, just because I’m trying to pass the time doesn’t mean I don’t fucking care,” Eren says, voice low. “It means I’m trying to adapt to everything, make it bearable. I don’t think we have to be miserable the whole time for it to be valid work. This is new to me, yeah, you don’t have to keep rubbing your _years of experience_ in my face. Where’s the guy who kept telling me ‘I’m not an expert, I don’t have that much experience’ a couple months ago?”

“There’s a difference,” Levi says coldly, “between what I have and nothing. At this rate, it’ll keep being nothing for you. Am I wrong?”

“Yes, you’re wrong!” Eren says, glaring. “What the fuck will it take to convince you how serious I am about this? What, do I have to die for you, too, will you listen to me then? Is that the only way to get you to care about what I have to say?”

As soon as he says it, he snaps his mouth shut and the room goes very quiet. Levi’s face closes off completely, and he turns away to get his bag.

“Levi,” Eren says, all the fight going out of him. “I didn’t mean it.”

Levi doesn’t acknowledge him. He slings his bag over his shoulder and goes out of the room past Eren without looking at him, posture stiff and eyes cold. Eren’s heart sinks and he goes after him immediately, regretting everything, but Levi doesn’t react. Eren knows that there’s nothing he can say right now to make it up to him, so he stops following and watches Levi going down the hall and out the door. He stands there for a while and looks at the space where Levi just was, hating himself for being such a hot-headed idiot, and then Jean sticks his head out of the other room.

“The fuck did you do?” he says. Eren shakes his head slightly.

“Let’s go home, we won’t see anything tonight.”

When they get outside, Levi’s car is gone. Eren gets into the back without even contending for shotgun, absolutely miserable.

“Hey,” Armin says, turning to look at him. “You okay? What happened? Levi left, and he looked angry. At first I thought that might just be his face, but no, he was definitely angry.”

Eren doesn’t say anything.

“They got in a fight,” Jean says on Eren’s behalf. “I wasn’t eavesdropping, because I have manners, but it was about how Eren isn’t that committed to the cause or whatever. And then I guess Eren said something dumb and Levi left.”

“I’m an idiot,” Eren mumbles. Levi had trusted him with that story, he’d opened up to him for the first time, and what does Eren do with that but use it as ammunition in a stupid fight. He wishes he could go back in time and beat himself up.

“I’ve been telling you that for years,” Jean says, cheerful. “Don’t worry, man. You’ll make up soon. If he couldn’t deal with you being an idiot, he’d have left ages ago.”

This is strangely reassuring and almost too nice of a thing for Jean to say. He must have been spending more time with Marco. “Thanks.”

“No problem whatsoever,” Jean says in the voice of the girl from Ferris Bueller. “Armin, let’s just go to a drive-thru, Eren’s too sad and it’ll kill my IHOP vibe.”

Eren doesn’t really notice what happens the rest of the night. He’s so mad at himself for saying what he said that he can’t even find it in himself to be frustrated with Levi for doubting him. Levi has every reason to doubt him, now that he thinks about it, because even though Eren is very enthusiastic, he doesn’t contribute a whole lot beyond his optimism. Admittedly, neither does Jean, but at least Jean doesn’t act like he’s an important part of the operation.

When they get home, Eren looks at Levi’s contact in his phone until his eyes are blurring from the need to sleep. He’ll deal with this in the morning, he decides, and is out like a light within a minute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I JUST WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT, EVEN THOUGH I WROTE THIS CHAPTER IN AUGUST AND I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT ANY OF THIS AT THE TIME, BASED ON WILD FATE AND CIRCUMSTANCE I AM CURRENTLY IN TORONTO RIGHT NOW. AS I POST THIS. IM IN TORONTO IN THE SPRING (AND I HAVE NEVER BEEN BEFORE). IM LITERALLY SO SHOOK. WROW... I DIED WHEN I FIGURED OUT IT WOULD LINE UP THIS WAY. AND LET ME TELL U... TORONTO IN THE SPRING REALLY IS LOVELY, AND I WAS SO SHOOK WANDERING AROUND THE U OF TORONTO CAMPUS IMAGINING FARLAN ISABEL AND LEVI THERE. ANYWAY! title from the second movement of beethoven’s 7th symphony. i know lol im so melodramatic but honestly? applicable! im really sorry about how mean i’ve been to farlan and levi but i liiiiiive for it and would love to talk about it, so leave a review or hmu on tumblr or twitter if u have things to say!! really if ur enjoying this story, pls leave a review, feedback means the world to me and i'm so happy that people are reading this story :'~) lots of love until next week!!


	8. Not Afraid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He takes a step forward, drawn inexorably to the figure, but Levi grabs his arm.  
>    
> Everything’s coming up Bust Ghosters.

Naturally, he doesn’t deal with it in the morning, and even though he’s usually a fairly fearless person, he knows that he’s fucked up really badly and isn’t sure how to even start going about winning Levi’s favor back. He types and deletes quite a few texts, and almost calls him, but the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes he should apologize in person. But his plan ends there, because he’d have to contact Levi some other way in order to schedule a meeting, and he’s not currently capable of that. So he’s existing in this weird limbo and feeling like he’s half-asleep and in a fog, constantly guilty and nervous that he’s ruined things with Levi forever.

He doesn’t tell Armin and Jean how stressed he is about this, but they can definitely tell, and Armin buys extra pizza pockets the next time he goes grocery shopping to try and cheer Eren up. It works for a few hours, then Eren goes back to being gloomy, and Armin gets more pizza pockets. The cycle continues.

Eren’s been going to work, too, but ever since he roped Levi into continuing the so-called project he’s been barely able to focus; it’s even worse now that he’s upset all the time. He’s fairly sure he won’t be fired, though, since all the high school kids are starting school again soon and quitting their summer jobs, and the mall needs autumn employees pretty badly. As a result, he spends his entire work day slacking off and stressing out, and one day he comes home and Marco is there, eating Froot Loops out of the box and reading the newspaper.

“Hi!” he says when Eren comes in. “How was work?”

Eren blinks a few times. “Hey, Marco. Uh. It was fine. Not to be rude, but why are you… here?”

“I’ve been here for the past three days,” Marco says, looking up in surprise. “Have you not noticed?”

“I’m a little out of it right now,” Eren says vaguely, going through to the kitchen to make himself some tea even though he doesn’t even like tea that much. “Is Jean around?”

“He’s napping,” Marco says, and something about his tone and the soft smile on his face makes Eren wrinkle his nose. The last thing he needs right now is to know about Jean’s sex life. “He told me a little bit about what you guys do, by the way.”

“Oh, yeah?” Eren says as he pours water into the kettle. “Thoughts?”

“I think it’s really interesting,” Marco hums. “My uncle died last year, so.”

Eren waits, thinking maybe there’s more to the story, but Marco doesn’t say anything else. Who knows what Jean told him. It probably has nothing to do with what they’re actually trying to accomplish. “Ah,” he says. 

“Are you okay?” Marco says gently. 

“Fine,” Eren says. “It’s been a long day.”

“Marco?” Jean’s voice says plaintively from down the hall. “Where’d you go?”

“I’m out here,” Marco says, face lighting up. “Come say hi if you want, Eren just got back from work.”

“Gross,” Jean mumbles, shuffling out of his room and flipping Eren off as he walks by. “Is that my shirt?”

Marco looks down at himself and smiles, opening an arm to invite Jean to come join him on the couch. “Yeah. It was just lying on your chair. Is that okay?”

“Looks good on you,” Jean says, then flops down onto the couch and curls around Marco like a koala. Eren snorts and looks away to give them some privacy as they kiss hello, stirring half a spoonful of sugar into his tea. “Eren, are you done being a pissbaby yet?”

“You’re the pissbaby,” Eren mumbles, “and no.”

“Ugh,” Jean says. “Cut it out so we can double date.”

“Did you just actually offer to spend time with me of your own accord?” Eren says. “Marco, check his temperature. Also, Levi and I aren’t, um, dating.” He’s mumbling by the end of it and frowning, cheeks red. He hadn’t known that he was so obvious about how he felt, and he doesn’t know why Jean would assume that he and Levi are dating, anyway.

“Lame,” Jean hums, kissing Marco again. “But also good, ‘cause that’d be gross.”

“You know what’s gross? This,” Eren says, gesturing to them. “Don’t fuck on the couch. Have some respect for Armin.”

Jean looks shifty and Marco blushes. “Too late,” Jean says and laughs when Eren groans. “Just kidding, jeez! Anyway, get your shit together.”

“I’m trying,” Eren says, morosely sipping his tea. 

“He’s coming to the next thing, so,” Jean says. 

Eren perks up. “He is? How? I didn’t tell him when it was.”

“He and Armin exchanged numbers, they’ve been in touch,” Jean says. Eren feels so relieved that Levi isn’t mad enough at him to stay away forever that he feels a little weak at the knees. 

“Well, I guess I’ll see him then,” Eren murmurs, starting to formulate a plan of attack/apology. He leaves Jean and Marco to their gay devices and goes to his room to sulk and finish his tea, which he accidentally over-steeped so it’s super bitter, and starts counting down the days until he sees Levi again.

Armin’s acting exactly the same and he hasn’t told Eren that Levi’s planning to come, so maybe something went wrong and Levi decided not to show after all. Eren is very anxious as they drive to Schaumburg to the site, but when they pull up in front of the house, Levi’s car is already there.

Eren’s heart flips over when he sees it; he’s missed Levi terribly. Apologizing isn’t going to be easy, because Levi seems like the sort of person to hold a grudge, but Eren is going to give it all he’s got.

“See you on the other side,” Armin says, shooing Jean and Eren out of the van. “Eren, don’t make it worse.”

“I won’t,” Eren mumbles, glancing over to where Levi is. “At least, I’ll try not to.”

“This is gonna be so messy,” Jean sighs gleefully. 

Eren ignores him and sends Levi a little wave. Levi doesn’t wave back, but he does lock his car and start heading up to the house. Eren watches the way he moves and barely restrains a sigh. “No cameras tonight, I think,” he mutters to Jean. “I don’t wanna push it.”

“I didn’t even bring mine,” Jean says. “I’m not as stupid as you think I am.”

“Huh. Wait— no, that is stupid, Jean, what if there’s a ghost!” Eren huffs, giving him a light shove.

“I can take pictures on my phone,” Jean protests, stepping away so Eren can’t reach him. “You’re such a dick.”

“Whatever,” Eren huffs, going in through the back door, which Levi had left open. “Levi? Where are you?”

“In here,” Levi says from somewhere down the hall. Eren swallows and goes in that direction, trying to muster up a smile when he sees him. When he does see him, it comes naturally, though, he’s just so glad for this second chance.

“Hi,” he says, coming in and setting his bag down so he can get his equipment powered up. Jean does the same, but he’s much less awkward about it, as Eren is conscious of his every movement, his every look in Levi’s direction. “How are things?”

“Fine,” Levi says without looking up from his notebook, in which he’s writing numbers.

Eren glances at Jean, who shrugs as if to say this is Eren’s problem, and sits down. Jean pulls out his phone so he has something to keep him entertained while they wait, but Eren doesn’t dare to. He just sits there and tries not to watch Levi too obviously, since Levi doesn’t like to be stared at. Nearly half an hour passes like this, until Eren can’t bear it and, fidgeting, finally says, “Levi, I’m sorry.”

Levi doesn’t look up, but he does stop writing.

“I didn’t mean what I said. I didn’t think,” Eren says, tripping over his words because of how upset he is with himself and because he doesn’t know how long Levi will let him talk. “I’ve spent the past week beating myself up for it, I feel so terrible. You’re right, I haven’t been committed enough, but I didn’t want to believe that, so I just got angry and didn’t listen to you and I shoved my foot so far in my own mouth that it came out of my ass. I really hope you can forgive me, but I’ll totally understand if it takes a while. I was a total dick. And I’m— I’m really sorry.”

Levi finally looks up, and Jean makes an awkward noise. “Okay, I’m gonna— not be here,” he says, getting up. “You two kiss and make up or whatever, I’ll go check out the rest of the house.” He grabs a flashlight and the smaller of the EMF readers they have, then goes out of the room.

Eren doesn’t hear him, really, because he’s making eye contact with Levi for the first time in a week and he’d forgotten how much he loves doing that. “I’m sorry,” he says fervently again.

“I believe you that you’re sorry,” Levi says shortly. “You don’t have to keep saying it.”

“Okay! Sorry— fuck.” Eren goes red and looks away. “I’ll just shut up.”

“Please,” Levi says. He considers Eren for a long moment, then sighs. “If no one ever forgave me for the things I said without thinking, I would never have kept a single friend. I know how it can be. What you said was… shitty, obviously, but I’m not going to crucify you. I just needed a little space, that’s all.”

“You accept my apology?” Eren says, startled but spectacularly happy. 

“I’m getting there,” Levi says.

“I’ll work so hard,” Eren promises, eyes huge. “I’ll work so hard, and I’ll help out with the spreadsheet and I’ll find houses and I’ll drive everyone everywhere, and I’ll contact more people who might have information, and I’ll be committed, Levi. Please believe me. I’m a try-hard, remember? And I’m going to try my god damn hardest for you, for— this.”

“How about you start by shutting up,” Levi says, resuming writing whatever it is he’s writing in his notebook. Eren shuts up, but he’s smiling anyway, and Levi is, too, just a little, unless it’s another trick of the light.

It’s coming up on midnight. Jean is still wandering around the rest of the house, presumably, because Eren texts him a question mark and he replies with an exclamation point. Levi’s transcribing a list of dates which starts with 15/04/05 and ends with 07/06/17. Eren asks what it is, and Levi tells him it’s a list of all the encounters he (and Eren) have had with ghosts, and they bicker about whether the date or the month should be written first; Levi refuses to budge, and Eren decides it’s not worth it after a few minutes. Their conversation isn’t as natural as it usually is, but it’s better than nothing, and Eren frequently finds himself just gazing at Levi with a small smile on his face until Levi glances up and he has to look away.

They’ve already been there for two hours, but it’s not dragging on like it usually does because Eren is so giddy from making up with Levi. Levi is working on something else now, and Eren is very content to just watch him and periodically check the various devices for any activity, even though none of the readings are changing. He’s about to offer to go see if Jean is still awake, because it’s a real possibility that he just fell asleep somewhere, when he hears a faint jingling and some dust falls from the ceiling.

Levi glances up. “You heard that, too, right? The chandelier.”

“Yeah, I heard it,” Eren says, recalling seeing a chandelier in the front room of the house. “You think that was Jean doing something, maybe?”

Levi shakes his head. He looks on-guard and wary, glancing over the ceiling and the room. “Let’s wait and see.”

“Okay,” Eren says and tries not to get too excited. He looks down at the EMF again and gives it a little nudge. “I’m not getting any readings, though.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Levi says, and he keeps talking, but Eren can’t hear him because his ears pop and start ringing.

Eren jumps up, heart beating fast. “Levi,” he yells over the sudden roaring wind in the room. “It’s happening.”

“I know,” Levi says, dropping his notebook and getting up as well. His eyes are wide, too, and his hair is getting all mussed from the wind speeding up and howling around them.

Eren turns around in a circle to see the whole room, anxious and excited and so fucking scared this isn’t going to last, and Levi’s looking around the exact same way. Their eyes meet and Levi opens his mouth to say something, but then they’re both pushed back by some invisible force, and the room lights up with brilliant, blinding blue and, like a sped-up video of a flower blooming, the ghost rises up from the ground.

The light swirls around them and Eren can’t breathe, staring at the figure. This one is different from the first one he’d seen, less mobile; its eyes are closed, and he’s not afraid. The wind is still roaring, but Eren can’t even hear it. He takes a step forward, drawn inexorably to the figure, but Levi grabs his arm. Eren tears himself away from staring at the ghost and turns back to see what Levi wants, about to tell him that he’ll tend to him in a minute, he wants to get his fill of looking at the ghost right now.

But Levi has a wild look in his eyes like Eren has never seen before, and he reaches up with his free hand, grabs a handful of Eren’s hair, and yanks him down into a messy, bruising kiss. Eren gasps and they both stagger with the force of it, but after a second of fumbling, Eren puts his hands on Levi’s waist and pulls their bodies together to keep them steady, kissing him back as hard as he can.

Levi kisses like an animal, all teeth and tongue and everywhere, and Eren can barely breathe but he’d rather die than stop. He sinks his teeth into Levi’s lower lip, giving as good as he’s getting, and the sound Levi makes when Eren does that makes Eren tremble to his very core. Levi pulls at his hair and Eren shudders, pulling him closer and closer, until he can’t even tell where he stops and Levi begins. Levi kisses him so thoroughly that Eren tingles all the way down to his toes and almost forgets that there’s a ghost _right there_ , but then they both remember at the same time and pull apart to breathe and to see it again.

Levi doesn’t let him go very far, though, one hand still possessively in Eren’s hair and the other on his shoulder. “Jean!” Eren shouts, laughing. “Get in here!” He looks down at Levi, whose face is illuminated by the ghost, and Levi is smiling so broadly, and Eren loves him so much. He presses his nose into Levi’s temple, hugging him close around the waist, and Jean bursts into the room.

“Holy fuck,” Jean gasps, dropping whatever he’s holding. “Is that a ghost?”

Eren picks Levi up off the ground (he’s much heavier than Eren was expecting, but the adrenaline rush keeps Eren going) and spins him around, then quickly sets him down again so they can all stand there and stare at it. Levi doesn’t even protest, just leans into Eren and catches his breath. The ghost is still asleep, light ebbing and flowing from it like waves on the beach, and the machines on the floor are all going crazy. Jean, being a smart millennial, gets out his phone and starts taking pictures, evidently because that’s the only way he can keep himself from freaking out about this.

“Tell Armin,” Eren finally manages to say, cheeks hurting from smiling and lips swollen from kissing. “Tell him to come see.”

Jean nods and texts Armin as quickly as he can, then goes back to just staring at the spirit in awe. “This is fucking insane, just so you know,” he says, voice shaking. Eren glances over to him and grins, because Jean has the same look on his face as Eren knows he also has.

“Do they normally stick around this long?” he whispers to Levi, who’s still clinging to him.

Levi shakes his head, expression softer now but just as reverent. “I don’t know what’s different.” He looks up at Eren, and Eren is about to lean down and kiss him again when Armin comes in.

“What the _fuck_ ,” Armin says, eyes huge. 

“You can come closer, it’s not going to hurt us,” Levi says, hand curling tightly in Eren’s hair. “It’s fine.”

The four of them stand there and don’t say anything for a long time, watching the ghost sleeping. The wind has calmed down completely, and it’s almost too still in the room, until the light slowly starts to fade and a breeze washes over them. Armin runs forward like he wants to stop it from leaving, but it’s gone in another instant and the room goes pitch-dark.

“Did you get any pictures, Jean?” Eren asks, not letting go of Levi.

Jean quickly turns on his phone and scrolls through, trembling. “I— yeah! I did! It doesn’t look as cool as it did in real life, but I got it.”

Eren grins, giving Levi a squeeze. “Nice,” he says, then gets distracted because he has an armful of Levi. He leans down and kisses him, and Levi pushes up on his toes to kiss back, calmer than before but still burning hot. 

“Let’s go,” Eren hears Armin say, and he very reluctantly breaks the kiss and nuzzles his nose against Levi’s.

“Drive me home,” Levi whispers. His breath brushes Eren’s mouth and Eren shivers.

“Okay,” he says, letting him go so he can help Jean and Armin pack up the gear. Jean and Armin both look shaken but happy, and Jean isn’t even giving Eren shit for making out with Levi in front of him, which is how Eren knows that he’s really impressed by what he saw.

“What do we do from here?” Armin says once they’re outside, eyes all lit up. “What can we do?”

“I don’t know,” Levi says. He’s holding Eren’s hand with a grip that’s just verging on too tight, but Eren is too happy to care. “I’ll call Hange and we’ll— I don’t know. I don’t know!” He presses his face into Eren’s shoulder and Eren can feel his smile.

“I’m gonna drive Levi home,” Eren tells Jean and Armin. “You guys okay?”

“Better than fucking ever, man,” Jean says honestly. “Like, I’m gonna get drunk as shit here in a second, but I’m having a great time.”

“I might join you, actually,” Armin says. “See you later, Eren. Thank you.”

“What? I didn’t do anything,” Eren says, surprised, but Armin just shakes his head, smiling, as he walks Jean to the van.

Eren looks down at Levi, who’s still got a small smile on his face. “Come on,” he murmurs, and leads him down the lawn to the car. “How are you?”

“I always forget how good it feels,” Levi says softly. “Even the dangerous ones. They all feel so— you know.”

“I do,” Eren smiles, opening the car door for him. He’s not sure if he’s more dazed from the ghost or from kissing Levi, but the two appear to be equally strong influences on him. He adjusts the driver’s seat once he’s in, then smiles over at Levi and starts to drive. 

They’re both fairly quiet on the ride back to Chicago, but this time, it’s not because either of them is upset; they’re simply too excited to be able to talk to each other. Eren sneaks plenty of glances at Levi, though, and is thrilled to find Levi occasionally doing the same. He parks in the garage, and gets out his phone so he can call an Uber, following Levi into the house.

“It’s late,” Levi, considerably more subdued, says as he turns on the light and toes out of his shoes. “You’d better stay the night.”

Eren’s heart jumps, and he keeps it to himself that Levi has gotten him an Uber home significantly later at night than this. “Uh,” he says, stowing his phone, “okay. Thanks.”

“You want some tea?” Levi says, going into the kitchen. “You’re really wired, right? It’ll help you fall asleep.”

“Sure,” Eren says, following him once he's taken his shoes off as well. He wants to kiss Levi again, but feels shy all of a sudden.

Levi hums, pouring water into the kettle. “Farlan, you up?” he calls.

“I’m incapable of sleeping,” Farlan, positioned in front of a laptop playing something on Netflix, says brightly. “How’d it go?”

Levi pauses to gather his thoughts, that little irrepressible smile coming back to his face. “I’ll tell you all about it later.”

Farlan cheers and Eren grins, unable to take his eyes off Levi. “And Eren’s here, too?” Farlan says. “Hey, man. Congrats.”

“Thank you,” Eren says, coming into the kitchen to get out mugs for himself and Levi. He’s never seen Levi smile this much before, and he’s inclined to think it might be because of him; after all, Levi said there’d been a ghost at the Franks house, and he hadn’t been this bubbly then. Levi puts a bag of green tea in each mug, and Eren smiles at him when he walks past. “We did it, huh?”

“We, technically, didn’t do anything,” Levi says, but he doesn’t sound very convinced. “It’s all down to chance, we were in the right place at the right time, and—”

“Levi, we did it,” Eren interrupts, grinning. “Admit it. We fixed up the algorithm, we _found_ the right place and the right time, we knew it would be there and it was. We did it.”

Levi doesn’t say anything as he pours water into the mugs, but he’s smiling again, and when Eren nudges his ankle with his foot, he shrugs a little. “Yeah, okay. We did it.”

Eren beams, taking his mug of tea. “Seriously, what do we do next?”

Levi sighs, glancing up at him. “I’ll call Hange. They’ll either tell us they have time to deal with this right now or they don’t. If they don’t, we keep going like this. If they do, they’ll assemble some more equipment, check out the work we’ve gotten done so far, basically help out in any way they can. I’m sure they’ll be very excited.”

“Were they the reason you were at the Franks place? You said you were repaying a favor,” Eren says, swirling his tea around in the cup. Levi nods, and Eren hums. “I should send them a thank you card.”

Levi huffs quietly and smiles, looking away. He almost looks like he’s blushing. “You’ll meet them soon enough, you can thank them yourself.” He takes Eren’s mug from him so he can dispose of the tea bags and add half a spoon of sugar to each, then gives it back.

They stand there, drinking their tea and occasionally looking at each other, and Eren begins to get the sense that he probably shouldn’t try to make his way into Levi’s bed tonight. “Can I have a blanket or something?” he asks. “For the couch.”

Levi looks a little relieved and nods. “Sure. I’ll get one for you after I’m done with my tea. You don’t have work tomorrow, do you?”

“Nah,” Eren says. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t go. Got bigger fish to fry.”

“I should write down today’s date in the log,” Levi says thoughtfully, sipping his tea. “The sooner the better, or I’ll forget.”

“Will you?” Eren says, gently teasing, and Levi definitely goes pink this time.

“No. I’ll do it tomorrow.” They stand and just smile at each other for a few moments, then Levi sets his mug in the sink and goes out of the kitchen. “I’ll be right back with blankets. You need anything else?”

“I mean, I guess a pillow,” Eren says, draining the rest of his tea and turning the kitchen light off as he goes out to the couch. It’s a nice couch and will probably be long enough for him, and he doesn’t know why they came to the unspoken agreement that they won’t do anything further tonight, but he’s somehow glad for it. “Thanks, again.”

“No problem,” Levi says, snagging Farlan and the laptop as he walks by and taking them into his bedroom, which is upstairs. Eren sits on the couch and is pleasantly surprised to find it very comfortable, and as the adrenaline starts to wear off, he yawns and swings his feet back and forth while he waits for Levi to come back.

Levi returns in a few minutes, arms full of blankets and a pillow. “Here, is this enough, do you think?”

“More than enough,” Eren assures gratefully, getting up and taking them from Levi. He spreads the blankets out and tosses the pillow down at one end, then smiles at him. “Thank you.”

“Well,” Levi says, sounding either shy or awkward, Eren can’t quite tell which, “good night, Eren.”

“Good night,” Eren nods, smiling, and Levi turns and goes back up the stairs.

Eren gets on the couch and covers himself with the blankets, curling up and getting cozy. He’s much more tired than he thought he was, so he’s sure he won’t have any trouble falling asleep, maybe in some small part thanks to the tea Levi had made him. Just as he’s drifting off, he hears the light click back on and footsteps coming down the stairs, and he sits up a little. “Levi?”

Levi, now wearing some sort of pajama thing, doesn’t answer, just comes over and takes Eren’s face in his incredibly soft hands and kisses him. Eren makes a small, surprised sound and kisses back, eyelashes fluttering closed and hands coming up to rest on Levi’s arms. They stay like that for a little while, and then Levi pulls away, looking content. “Sorry. Good night.”

“Good night,” Eren says again, smiling up at him with undisguised adoration. Levi wavers for a moment between staying and going, but soon goes up the stairs and turns the light back off. 

Eren curls up, pulling the blankets more tightly around himself, and falls asleep almost immediately after that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from the excellent fall out boy version of the ghostbusters theme from the new movie. fun fact “i’m not afraid” was almost the title of this fic. i love their version even though it really got dragged through the mud when the movie came out lol. this fic was kiiiind of inspired by ghostbusters 2016, in that i saw it and was like hey.. this is the best movie.. possibly ever… i want to engage with ghost content! and thus bust ghosters was born! thank you so much for keeping up with it this long. i know this was an exciting chapter huehuehuhue, but im also realizing it was SO short?!?!?!?!?! more to come next week!!!! dont worry chapter 9 is SUPER long, pushing 13k (this one is pushing 5k for comparison hehe)!!!!!!!! hopefully this chapter makes up for in excitement what it lacks in length djsdjsjdjs!! please review, talk to me, etc! thank you so much for reading :’’’))


	9. Excalibur

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hange. How dare you offer me saltines.”
> 
> Eren meets Hange, the gang meets their idols.

Eren wakes up and hears voices, extremely louder and incredibly closer than he’s used to hearing things in the morning. He makes a small, grumpy noise and tries to pull the blankets up more than they already are, but then his feet aren’t covered, which is worse. He sighs and slowly cracks his eyes open, seeing a blurry Levi talking to someone he doesn’t recognize, and if he hadn’t woken up twelve seconds ago he’d request that they be quieter.

Levi has his arms crossed and he’s frowning, and when Eren slowly sits up, rubbing his eyes, he huffs and gestures to him. “Look, you woke him up. Happy?”

“Very,” the other person says, grinning. “Hi, Eren! Good morning!”

“I made you tea,” Levi says, voice considerably softer, and comes over to Eren. “Did we wake you, really?”

Eren nods, yawning. “But that’s okay. Time’s it?”

“Just after nine.” Levi straightens up again and looks back at the person, stern. “I’ll be right back. Be gentle.”

“I always am,” the person laughs. Eren blinks a few more times to get the sleep out of his eyes and looks at them. This, then, must be Hange: a tall, glasses-wearing androgyne in an Indiana Jones t-shirt and extremely formal trousers. “Eren, wake up, half the day’s gone already!”

“Oh, my God,” Levi mutters from the kitchen.

Eren is so horrified at the prospect of waking up even earlier than this that he can’t even say anything in response. Hange laughs and comes over, offering their hand for the shaking. “I’m Hange. Don’t call me Dr. Zoe, it makes me feel like I’m in trouble. I’ve heard a lot about you!”

“Likewise,” Eren says, shaking their hand as best he can in his current state. 

“Oh, has Levi mentioned me? You must have the worst possible impression of me, then,” Hange says, laughing. “You’ll find I’m not so bad. They pronouns, by the way.”

“I know,” Eren mumbles, rubbing his eyes again. “I’ll be really excited to work with you once I’ve woken up more.”

“This is so cute,” Hange says, marveling at him. “Levi, get back here, you’re missing out.”

“What am I missing?” Levi says, coming back with a mug of tea. “Here, Eren.”

“Thanks,” Eren says and curls his hands around the mug for warmth. “Is there breakfast?”

“There can be,” Levi says. “On a related note, Hange promised to bring food but they didn’t.”

“Did I? Sorry!” Hange says with a shameless grin. “I got caught up with work. Did you know I’m someone’s thesis advisor now? That’s what I was working on when you called me.”

“Good luck to that someone,” Levi says dryly. “Anyway, let’s let Eren wake up, we can go talk in the other room.”

“But Eren and I haven’t even gotten the chance to chat,” Hange pouts. “I want to see if he lives up to his reputation.”

“Hange,” Levi says sharply. Eren blinks sleepily and smiles at Levi over his mug. “Let’s go.”

“You’re no fun,” Hange sighs. “I’ll be back, Eren, and we’ll catch up!”

“Okay,” Eren says and sips his tea. He’s remembering last night, the ghost, the kiss, and watches Levi go with a little smile on his face. Levi glances over his shoulder as he walks out of the room, and he smiles back at Eren for a brief moment before going into another room down the hall.

Eren drinks his tea slowly as he wakes up more, listening to the sounds of the conversation. He can’t make out the words, but Hange’s voice is very excited, while Levi sounds about as enthusiastic as usual, which is to say not at all. After a few minutes, the conversation dies down, and Levi comes back. “Hey. They’re playing with the algorithm right now, that should keep them busy for a few minutes.” He puts his hands on his hips and regards Eren. “Did you sleep okay?”

“Yeah, this is a really comfortable couch,” Eren nods, setting his empty mug on the coffee table. “Did you?”

Levi shrugs. “Couldn’t really fall asleep.”

“Oh,” Eren says, frowning. “You should have come back down, we could have hung out.”

“I did come down again, but you were asleep already.” Levi picks Eren’s mug up to take to the kitchen, but he doesn’t go yet. “I know Hange can be a lot. Especially in the mornings. I apologize in advance.”

“You don’t have to,” Eren says with a smile. “They’re nice, I don’t know why you’re so embarrassed by them.”

“I’m not embarrassed,” Levi says. “I’m just apologizing. You seem very sleepy.”

“I am, but it’s fine,” Eren says. He feels a little awkward again, and he’s not used to conversation with Levi being this stiff, so he says, “Nice turtleneck. Do you have special turtlenecks for sleeping in, too? I didn’t get a chance to see last night.”

“Why does everyone always give me shit for the turtlenecks? I like them,” Levi defends, scowling, and takes Eren’s mug through to the kitchen. “Do they look bad or something?”

“They look the opposite of bad, it’s just funny,” Eren says, lying back down and smiling at the ceiling. “How many do you have? Fifty?”

“Maybe ten,” Levi says, returning to the living room. “You know what else I have? A washing machine.”

“Congrats,” Eren says. “Come here.”

Levi raises his eyebrows. “Where?”

“Here,” Eren says, gesturing generally to himself, and Levi actually blushes before coming over. Eren sits up so Levi will have room to sit down on the couch and smiles at him, pulling the blanket aside as well. “Don’t be shy.”

“I’m not fucking shy, I was just waiting for you to move,” Levi says defensively and sits down. He turns his head and looks at Eren, leaning back against the couch. “Well. Here I am.”

“Here you are,” Eren agrees, smiling. “Hello.”

“We’ve already said good morning.”

“Mm, have we?” Eren murmurs, and leans in to kiss him slowly. Levi is still for a moment, then kisses back, one hand coming up to brush Eren’s jaw. Eren doesn’t know what Levi wants from him, if anything, because the kiss in front of the ghost seemed like it had been very much a heat-of-the-moment thing, but Levi hasn’t pushed him away yet and his other hand is moving to run through Eren’s sleep-puffy hair. Eren, after a few seconds, pulls back just enough to talk, smiling. “Good morning.”

Levi huffs quietly and kisses him again, scooting closer on the couch. Eren’s hands move to gently rest on Levi’s waist, keeping him where he is, and Levi tilts his head to deepen the kiss, evidently ignoring that Eren probably tastes like an interesting cocktail of morning breath and tea. It’s still pretty light, especially compared to the way they’d kissed yesterday, but Eren is fairly overwhelmed anyway, because Levi’s kisses are so emotive and thorough, and he can only hope that he’s doing a satisfactory job in response. He’s trying his absolute best, naturally, but he keeps getting distracted by how soft Levi’s mouth is and the way he breathes between kisses, exploratory, quiet.

“Levi, are these your notes? They’re _terrible_ ,” Hange says, coming back into the room. “Stop making out and listen to me. Did you write this?”

Levi pulls back, face flushing slightly, and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “What? Yes, I wrote it. What do you mean, they’re terrible?”

“I mean they’re terrible,” Hange says, brandishing Levi’s notebook at him accusingly and evidently not bothered by how flustered Eren is. “Have you forgotten everything I taught you? I’ll have Moby send some documents over and I expect you to actually read them this time. If it’s soft x-ray radiation, then it’s electromagnetic, too, so I don’t know why it says in here that there’s no overlap, since you clearly don’t know that some— uh, for Eren’s sake let’s call them ghosts— some ghosts emit alpha radiation, which wouldn’t show up on an EMF. You’re right about that, at least. But you don’t know that there are both, so a lot of this just seems to be… guesswork. Wow, what a coincidence, this ghost randomly happened to read on the EMF, and this one didn’t! I wonder why! It’s because they’re _different_. It’s not a coincidence. There are no coincidences in our field.” They push their glasses up their nose and force Levi to take the notebook. “And there’s nothing special about your Geiger counter, it’s not extra-sensitive or anything.”

Levi stares down at the notebook, bright red to the tips of his ears. “You told me it was,” he mumbles. Eren has never seen him this embarrassed before, and he’s having the time of his life watching Levi get dragged. He presses their knees together, grinning broadly, and looks up at Hange. 

“In fact, the only thing of merit in there is a drawing of a mouse, which is excellent and presumably drawn by Eren,” Hange adds. “How about instead of looking like you’ve been stepped on, you do some research for a change?”

“I get it,” Levi snaps, still blushing, and sets his disgraced notebook on the table. “Are you done?”

“Yes, that’s all I had to say,” Hange says. “You can go back to making out. Check your email later today, I’ll text Moby right now.”

They get out their phone and start typing, and Eren glances down at Levi, amused. Levi is still a little red and clearly embarrassed; it’s the sweetest thing Eren has ever seen. “Don’t worry, I still think you’re cool even though you’re a giant fraud,” Eren whispers to him, and Levi snorts, shaking his head. 

“They’re right, though, we shouldn’t be going into this blind,” Levi murmurs, starting to relax again. Eren runs his hand up Levi’s back and settles it on the nape of his neck, just to see how it feels. “Hans, what about Farlan, then? He shows up on both.”

“Nice try,” Hange says, not looking up from their phone. “Farlan is a different beast entirely. He shows up on both because he has both types of radiation, and in case you haven’t noticed, most ghosts can’t talk, and he can. I think those things are connected, but I can’t really figure out why. Might just be the supernatural element that we all struggle with so much. Or it could be quantum, but you know I can’t prove that yet, as much as I’d like to.” They laugh, shaking their head as they keep texting. “I can’t believe how much I’m simplifying all of this for you. My department would excommunicate me if they knew.”

“Your department supports your… paranormal interests?” Eren says, surprised, then remembers they’re at the University of Chicago and decides that makes sense.

“Once you get tenure, you can do whatever you want and no one bothers you,” Hange says with a broad grin. “So! Levi tells me you went to Northwestern.”

Eren glances at Levi, surprised that Levi had told Hange about him in that much depth, but Levi is reading over his notes and his face isn’t giving anything away. “Uh, yeah,” he says. “Go Wildcats.”

“Yeah, go straight to hell,” Hange says. “Levi, do you have any food in this house?”

“I would have, if you’d brought any,” Levi replies, looking up at them. Eren still has his hand on the back of Levi’s neck, and he experimentally runs his thumb over the fuzziest and freshest part of his undercut, which looks and feels like velvet. Levi shivers and ducks his head, shouldering Eren’s hand away. Eren smiles and bites his lip, keeping his hands to himself. 

“Eren, what do you think of Levi’s accent?” Hange asks, going through to the kitchen to see for themselves. 

“I hadn’t really noticed it, to be honest,” Eren says, glancing at Levi, who’s frowning again.

“I think it’s so cute,” Hange hums. “He hates it, though.”

“Are you doing this on purpose?” Levi snaps, getting up. 

“Heh. _Sor_ ry,” Hange says, pronouncing it the way Levi pronounces it. Eren, being a fool, hadn’t realized that was a Canadian thing up until now and had just thought it was a Levi thing. Either way, it’s super cute, and he beams up at him. He doesn’t know why Levi is so stressed about the things Hange is saying — Jean and Armin have significantly more dirt on Eren, this is nothing in comparison — but he’s flattered that Levi seems to want to make a decent impression on him. Admittedly, it’s a bit late for making good first impressions, but Eren’s pretty sure that he’s in love, so it doesn’t even matter anymore.

“Just a second, I’ll go deal with this,” Levi mutters, stepping away to go to the kitchen, but Eren reaches out and grabs his hand so he can’t leave. “What?”

“Relax,” Eren says, smiling. “I’m having fun. You really don’t have to be so embarrassed. I like them.”

“You do?” Levi says, eyeing Eren doubtfully, and Eren nods. “They’re just trying to show off.”

“That’s okay,” Eren says and gives his hand a squeeze before letting go. “I promise I don’t mind.”

“Well,” Levi huffs, but he can’t come up with anything else, just sighs and goes out of the living room. “It’s Eren’s day off today, so if you have the time to do anything, it should be sooner rather than later.”

“I always have time for you, Levi!” Hange says, then hesitates and laughs. “Actually, I’m always very busy, but today’s a good day for it.”

“We might have to swing by my work,” Levi says. “I’ll take some time off, maybe a week. I can stay at yours and do the reading you want me to do, run tests, things like that.”

“Just like old times,” Hange grins. “Sure, I’ll clean the guest room. Eren, where do you work?”

“Uh,” Eren says, getting up and folding the blanket at the end of the couch, “at the mall in Evanston. It’s not very glamorous.”

“Sounds fun,” Hange hums, smiling brightly at him when he comes into the kitchen. “You’re tall!”

“I mean, kinda,” Eren says, trying to remember if he’s 5’10” or 5’11” so he can confirm or deny. “Where’s Farlan?”

“Oh, he’s having a great time,” Hange says. “I brought him this little Rube-Goldberg machine one of my students built and he’s rolling around in it.”

“Are you trying to bribe him to like you more than me?” Levi says, raising his eyebrows as he goes through his fridge. 

“I don’t need to bribe him for that, he already does,” Hange grins. “What’cha looking for?”

“Food, for the youth,” Levi says. Eren assumes he must be the youth and smiles, bashful. “Since _someone_ didn’t bring breakfast.”

“Why are you so obsessed with me not bringing food? You must be really hungry. Here,” Hange says, going through their pockets and withdrawing a tiny package of saltines. “Eat these.”

“You come into my house,” Levi begins, and Eren very helpfully interjects, “On the day that my daughter is to be married.” Levi looks at him disdainfully and continues, “And you—”

“—don’t offer me friendship. You don’t even call me ‘Godfather,’” Eren sighs.

Levi closes the fridge and glares at Eren. “What I’m trying to say is: you show up here, and—” 

“—and you ask me to do murder!” Eren despairs. “For money!”

“What’s going on?” Levi demands as Hange laughs, hiding their face in their hand. “What is this? I’m just trying to shame Hange for being a bad houseguest, and you’re doing this.”

Eren, laughing, comes over and kisses him on the cheek, nuzzling in because he can’t help himself. “It’s from a movie. Carry on.”

Levi rolls his eyes and pushes Eren away, but somehow manages to look a little pleased nonetheless. “Hange. How dare you offer me saltines.”

“They’re good!” Hange defends.

“I doubt it. Give me one,” Levi says, holding out his hand. Hange makes a face.

“Actually, I ate them while Eren was reenacting _The Godfather_ ,” they say, not particularly apologetic. “Told you they were good.”

“You’re appalling,” Levi mutters, opening the fridge again. “Eren, what do you eat?”

“I’m not picky,” Eren says, standing behind Levi and peering over him to see what’s in the fridge. “I can make myself eggs, you two can keep talking shop.”

“I don’t know if I trust you with my kitchen,” Levi murmurs, leaning back into Eren just slightly. Eren hadn’t known how thrilling it would be, how intoxicating, to have the physical barrier between him and Levi disappear, but now that he’s apparently allowed to touch him and be close to him, he can’t stop and he can’t get enough. 

“And how is that supposed to make me feel?” Eren teases, gently nudging him. “It’s fine, Levi, I was a college student for years, I know how to cook eggs.”

Levi turns around and looks up at him, frowning. “You’re sure?” Eren nods, smiling. “And you won’t be upset that I’m just abandoning you to fend for yourself?”

“I’m not a _baby_ ,” Eren huffs, reaching over him to grab the carton of eggs. “I’ll even clean up after myself, just you wait. You’ll be so impressed.”

“This oughta be good,” Hange says. “I have yet to see anyone live up to Levi’s absurd kitchen standards.”

“I’m very motivated,” Eren says. “Go, seriously, it’s fine.”

“I can’t, you’re blocking my way,” Levi says. Eren’s still in front of him, meaning he’s trapped against the fridge. Eren grins down at him, eyes sparkling, and Levi’s gaze flickers over him for a moment before he takes Eren by the waist and moves him to the side. Eren just hopes he isn’t blushing too visibly. “There. We’ll be back soon.”

“Take as long as you need,” Eren shrugs, setting the eggs by the stove and starting to look around for a frying pan. “I’ll be totally fine out here, I promise. I don’t have, like, separation anxiety or anything.”

“I think Levi is trying to imply that he does,” Hange says, smirking, and laughs when Levi throws an almond from a small bowl on the counter at them.

Eren covers his mouth to hide his ridiculous grin, loving this new side of Levi that he gets to see, and gestures for the two of them to go away. They do, leaving him alone in the kitchen, and he hums quietly to himself as he starts making sunny-side-up eggs and scrounging around for some bread with which he could make toast. He knows he should feel a little bad for partaking in Hange’s poking fun at Levi, but Levi’s reactions are so adorable, and Eren definitely adores him. He also adores kissing him, and spends so long thinking about what his next kiss with Levi is going to be like that he very nearly overcooks his eggs. 

There’s a Keurig on the counter that wasn’t there before; Hange must have brought their own, which is pretty inspirational. Eren would make himself a cup if it were Levi’s machine, but since it’s not, he decides to leave it alone and have juice with breakfast instead. Levi, being an old man, only has cran-apple, but Eren doesn’t mind, and he sits at the single chair at the little table in the kitchen while he eats his eggs and toast. Being in Levi’s house feels different now that they’ve crossed this boundary — both the supernatural boundary and the boundary of touch, of kiss — and he tries to figure out what, exactly, feels different. 

Once he’s done eating, he very thoroughly cleans up, wanting to impress and also conscious that, despite whatever he and Levi are doing, he’s still a guest in this house and his manners probably aren’t much better than Hange’s, at least in Levi’s opinion. Hange and Levi are still in the other room talking, and Eren’s curiosity gets the best of him and he walks quietly down the hall to see what’s going on.

“Anyway, how are you feeling about everything?” Hange asks, more calmly than Eren’s heard them sound yet.

“Fine, actually,” Levi replies after a slight pause. “Just fine.”

“Yeah? That’s good. It’s not too much?”

“I thought it might be, but it isn’t.”

“Good, good. Eren’s eavesdropping, by the way.”

Eren freezes, going pink, but Levi’s hum in response doesn’t sound upset. “Tell him to come in.”

“Levi, if he can hear me, he can hear you. What, does he need a formal invitation?” Hange chuckles.

Eren steps over into the doorway, running a hand through his hair and looking sheepish. “Sorry. The door was open.”

“It’s okay, it’s not like we’re discussing big secrets here,” Hange smiles. “Look! Isn’t that fun?”

They’re pointing to what Eren would have mistaken for a really cool hamster cage at first, but a closer examination reveals it’s got all sorts of wire cradles, gears, transparent tubes, and switches. He comes over to look at it and sees a blue ball rolling through, accompanied by an excited whisper of “fuck yeah!” any time anything exciting happens. He grins, leaning in closer to see Farlan’s journey through the machine, and turns back to look at Levi and Hange. “I want one of these for myself, honestly.”

“He can’t even feel what’s happening,” Levi says, looking very imposing and cool and tiny in his big leather office chair.

“It’s the thought that counts!” Farlan shouts, whooping as he rolls down a chute and bounces off a spring.

Eren smiles at Levi, wanting to be close to him again, to walk his fingers up his arm and into his hair, to kiss the crook of his neck, to peel off his sweater and see what’s underneath, to hold his hand. He doesn’t do any of that, though, because Levi’s busy and Hange is there, so he just backs towards the door. “I’ll leave you to it. Just wanted to come say hi.”

“Hi,” Hange says, then looks at Levi expectantly.

Levi rolls his eyes, clicking a ballpoint pen a few times. “Hi.”

Eren grins, feeling all fluttery inside again, then goes out of the room.

“We’ll be leaving soon-ish,” Levi calls after him. “Just so you know.”

“Okay,” Eren hums, getting out his phone so he can text Jean and Armin and confirm he’s alive. Jean sends him some very suggestive emojis, but it would seem Armin is still asleep, so Eren is spared the double dose of teasing for now. He sits back down on the couch in order to combat his sudden powerful urge to snoop. With a little bit of luck, he’ll be shown the rest of the house soon, hopefully starting with the bedroom.

By the time Levi and Hange come back, Eren has somehow ended up lying upside down perpendicularly on the couch, his legs hanging over the back of it as he holds his phone in the air above his face and has an emoji fight with Jean.

“Why,” Levi says, and Eren jerks up and falls off the couch.

“Ow,” Eren mumbles, dragging himself up again. “Sorry, I was, uh, stretching.”

“Right,” Levi says. He looks like he’s hiding a smile. “Hange claims to have something to talk about with you, and they also brought me some books to buy me off, so I’ll look through those and then we’ll be on our way. Okay?”

“Fine by me,” Eren nods, glancing at Hange. Hange smiles at him, and Eren suddenly feels very intimidated. Levi gives Hange a very stern look indeed, then goes out of the living room again.

“Don’t look so scared, I don’t bite,” Hange says, coming over to plop down on the couch by his side. “I just wanted to get to know you! Levi really only has wonderful things to say.”

“I doubt that, but thanks anyway,” Eren says. He’s dying to know what Levi’s been saying, even if it hasn’t been all laudatory. The concept of Levi thinking about him when they’re not together has him feeling warm. “What do you want to know? There’s honestly not much.”

“Well— Eren,” Hange says, smile abruptly fading. “I’m actually here to talk about Levi.”

“Ah,” Eren says, intimidation growing. “Okay.”

“I’m not going to ask your intentions, because it’s obviously still quite early,” Hange continues. “But, I’m not gonna lie, this is going to be a ‘you break his heart, I break you’ speech.”

“Okay,” Eren says again, a little more meekly.

“I’ve known Levi for… eleven years,” Hange says. “I’ve seen him through a lot of ups and a _lot_ of downs. I know I started this with a really scary statement, but really, Eren, I’d like to thank you.”

“Thank me?” Eren repeats, thrown off.

Hange nods. “I never thought he’d start doing this again. I don’t know if he’s told you anything about what it was like for him before, but it wasn’t— it wasn’t very fun, for either of us. He was still so broken up about what happened with Farlan, understandably, and it was very much a redemption thing for him. When he stopped, I was glad, honestly. He was going to work himself to death, so it was for the best, then. I missed him, of course, it’s always nice to have a hobby that you and your best friend do together, but I didn’t want to force him into it.” They smile, pushing their glasses up again. “I’ve gotta say, though, it’s really great to have him back. It’s doing him so much good already, I think he needs it. I haven’t seen him this excited about it in years, and I do think it has something to do with you. You were the one who talked him back.”

“I mean, he said he decided on his own,” Eren says, really wishing he didn’t have to have this conversation. “But I pushed pretty hard, I guess.”

“He told me you were relentless, you don’t have to be so modest,” Hange says with a smile. “And I want to thank you for it. He’s brilliant, if a little rough around the edges, and although he’s a wonderful professor, I think he’s better at this, even for all my jokes about how terrible his notes are. He has wonderful intuitions. He always says no when I tell him to quit his job and come work for me, though. He’s not that interested in quantum physics. Bummer. Anyway! I’m excited to see where this goes. But you have to be patient with him. None of this comes easily to him. You’ve probably noticed that he’s a little awkward.”

“Um, sometimes,” Eren says, trying to keep up with Hange switching topics every few seconds, “but it’s—”

“No, I know, it’s super cute, he’s like a kitten,” Hange says. “A kitten who can kill you, but still. He’s not very good at talking to people and he’s not good at working in teams. This applies to the ghost thing, and it applies to his personal life. I was mainly talking about his personal life, since you’re, you know, involved.” They wait for a confirmation, and Eren goes red and doesn’t know what to say, so he just nods. “I think that’s good for him, too. I do think you’re good for him, both from what he’s told me and from my immediate impressions of you. I know it’s unfair to ask that you never hurt him or anything, but I’d at least like to ask that you not do it on purpose. He’s been through enough. And he cares for you very deeply. You have to be gentle, even if he doesn’t seem like he needs it.”

“What the fuck did he tell you?” Eren says, anxious and breathless from _he cares for you very deeply_ , but at least Hange approves, so Levi can’t have talked too much shit. 

“He told me enough,” Hange says. “I just wanted to be sure for myself that there’s no risk of you dropping this a month in because it’s boring.”

“I’m not like that,” Eren assures firmly, remembering his fight with Levi with a guilty wince. “I’m in this for life. Were you talking about the ghost thing, though, or the… involved thing?”

Hange smiles, looking very enigmatic. “Which were you talking about?”

Eren, stumped, goes a bit pink again and shrugs.

Hange’s smile only widens. “That’s what I thought. You’re a good kid, Eren.” They hop up and take their glasses off to clean them. “Levi! Quit being a book goblin and get out here, let’s go!”

“You’re just excited to see Erwin, but what makes you think I’ll let you inside the building?” Levi says, coming into the living room with a few books. “Thank you for these, by the way. I’ve already read some of them, but the rest seem interesting.”

“Those are library copies, I’ll get you real ones if you like,” Hange says, putting their glasses back on. 

Levi nods, but he’s looking at Eren, who’s still trying to figure out what that conversation was about. “You okay?”

“Totally!” Eren says, looking up at him quickly and smiling. “Yeah, I’m great. Are we going?”

“Well, since everyone is so insistent,” Levi says. “Sure.”

“Yessss,” Hange grins, going over to the door to grab their shoes. “Eren, have you ever met Erwin? He’s the head of Levi’s department at his college.”

“Yeah, uh, briefly,” Eren says. “I told him I was looking for Levi and he offered to make me an appointment with student counseling.”

Levi snorts, getting his car keys. “Typical.”

“Don’t let this fool you,” Hange says, gesturing to Levi’s little frowny face. “They’re actually friends. I wish they were closer friends so I could friend-steal Erwin away for myself and stare at him all the time.”

“Oh, yeah? And what would Rico think of that?” Levi says, patting his pockets to make sure he has everything.

“She’d be very supportive, you kidding?” Hange grins. “Come on, hurry up! Take me to Professor Handsome!”

“He’s not even a professor,” Levi huffs, but heads for the door, taking his slippers off and putting some loafers on instead. 

“No, but he sure is handsome,” Hange laughs as they follow him. “Eren, stop staring at Levi’s ass and come on.”

Eren goes bright red. “I wasn’t,” he protests, getting up and coming over to get his shoes on and open the door for Levi.

Hange winks at him and goes out of the door before Levi can. Levi mutters something probably very mean under his breath and walks out after them. “Told you they were a lot,” he says, waiting for Eren to come out as well so he can lock the door. “What did they want to talk about?”

“Just ghost stuff,” Eren lies, smiling down at him. “It’s okay.”

Levi looks up at him, suspicious, and finishes locking the door. “Did they say anything weird about me?”

“Like what? No, I don’t think so,” Eren says. “You’re still embarrassed, huh? You should try talking to Jean about me sometime, then you’ll know a thing or two about friend sabotage.”

“What’s to say I haven’t already?” Levi says, but he’s smiling, so Eren thinks he’s not serious. But then again, he never asked Jean what he and Levi talked about when Eren was napping way back when, so he could mean it. Before Eren can reply or ponder this for too long, Levi reaches out to take a handful of Eren’s shirt and draws him in nice and close and kisses him.

Eren melts, one hand settling on Levi’s slim waist, and kisses him back, smiling against his lips. He doesn’t have much to go off of yet, but he’s near-certain that every kiss with Levi will feel like as much of a surprise as the previous one, just as new. Levi pulls back after a few seconds and goes into the garage, and Eren, adoring, follows.

Hange’s already sitting in the passenger seat, so Eren gets into the back and frowns at how little room there is. Levi, meanwhile, gets into the driver’s seat and spends an entertaining few seconds adjusting the seat forward so he can drive comfortably.

“So we’re stopping by my work, then I should probably drop Eren off at his place,” Levi says, but Hange makes a noise.

“In Evanston? And then we’re going back down to Hyde Park? That’s so much extra driving,” they say. “Can’t he take the train? No offense, Eren.”

“None taken,” Eren says. He knows driving around in circles around Chicago can get very tiring very fast.

“Hange, I have a car, I’m not going to make him take the train,” Levi says slowly, frowning.

“It’s fine, I can honestly just take the train,” Eren assures. “There’s a stop pretty close to your work, and then I take the blue line to the red line, I think, and it’s totally fine.”

“I’ll think about it,” Levi says. Eren is over the moon that Levi wants to drive him around and feels very pampered, even though they’re just talking about it for now. Levi starts the car and drives out onto the street, and Eren leans his head against the window, watching the neighborhood go by. Hange turns the radio on, but not loudly, and Eren can still hear the two of them very quietly talking over it. It might be wishful thinking, but he hears Hange say, “I’ve never seen you this smitten before, it’s amazing,” and Levi growls at them to shut up.

When they get to the college, Levi parks and looks at Hange sternly. “This is going to be quick, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“Me? Hopeful? Never,” Hange grins. “Now take me to your leader.”

Levi rolls his eyes and gets out of the car. Eren takes a little longer, because he has to unfold his legs and remember how to use them, but he’s out in another moment and smiles at Levi.

Levi doesn't smile back, but he doesn’t frown, either, so Eren considers it a success. He and Hange follow Levi through the small quad of the college into the building Eren had gotten lost in on his first visit here, and when they reach the HUMANITIES DEP’T office, Levi doesn’t bother knocking before going in.

“Hello— ah,” Erwin says. “You again. What do you want?”

“I’m taking a week off,” Levi says. “I’ll email my students today with some discussion questions for them to do in my absence. It might be longer than a week, actually, but I’ll definitely be back in time for finals.”

Erwin looks at Eren very suspiciously, evidently recognizing him, and Eren shrinks a little. Erwin’s blue eyes narrow, but he doesn’t say anything and looks at Levi again. “Is there any point to me asking why?”

“I don’t know, maybe I’m going to go _hunt ghosts_ ,” Levi says, deadpan.

Erwin sighs, taking a sip of coffee out of a ‘world’s best boss’ mug. “Get out of my office. Dr. Zoe, a pleasure as always.”

“You, too,” Hange says, grinning, and Levi rolls his eyes and pushes them out of the office so he can leave.

“Nice cardigan, by the way!” Levi calls as the office door closes behind them.

“Thanks,” Erwin says, sounding like he’s both very used to and very tired of Levi’s shenanigans. Eren is delighted to find that Levi is the sort of person to conduct shenanigans, and he also thinks that that meeting went well, so overall he’s glad.

Levi looks around when they’re outside and sighs, putting his hands on his hips. “Eren. I might have to make you take the train.”

“That’s totally okay,” Eren assures him, smiling. “I’ll see you this week, right? Unless you’ll be busy with Hange.”

“No, if there’s a window, then there’s a window, I’ll be there,” Levi says. 

“Feel free to come down and visit, unless being on my campus will make you break out into hives,” Hange says cheerfully. 

“I might have work, but thanks for the offer,” Eren says, smiling. “You two have fun, though. Research lots.”

“We’ll probably just eat ramen and watch _Supernatural_ , but thanks,” Hange laughs.

Levi rolls his eyes and steps forward, closer to Eren. “Text me,” he murmurs, looking up at him.

Eren nods, smiling softly. “Will you text me back?”

“No,” Levi says. “But text me anyway.”

Levi is so strange. Eren can’t get enough of him. “Okay, I will,” he says, glancing down as Levi takes him by the shirt and pulls him close again. Eren smiles, biting his lip. “Can I help you?”

“Probably not,” Levi says and leans up to kiss him. Just briefly, though, just a sweet little thing to say goodbye, but it still leaves Eren dizzy. Levi lets him go and steps back, looking pleased with himself. “Go away.”

“I’m going!” Eren laughs, stepping back and almost stumbling because he’s staring at Levi’s mouth, which was just on his own. “See you.”

“As cute as it is, I can’t deal with this flirtatious nonsense anymore, come on,” Hange says, grabbing Levi by the arm and dragging him in the direction of the garage. “Nice to meet you, Eren! Stay gold!”

“Bye,” Eren calls after them, and smiles all the way home, even though there’s a mariachi band on the train and it’s very loud. His train goes past a billboard for the new _Ghostbusters_ movie, and he takes a picture of it and sends it to Levi with a question mark as the caption. He’s not expecting an answer, and he doesn’t get one — Levi likes leaving him on read, apparently — but he’s glad Levi saw the text anyway. He hopes Levi is thinking about him.

When he gets home, Armin is drinking iced coffee and Jean is wearing a blanket as a cape and playing some video game. “The prodigal son returns!” Jean says, not looking up from his game. “Did the prodigal son at least get laid?”

“The prodigal son spent a wonderful night on the couch and also met the legendary Hange,” Eren says, taking off his shoes. “Apparently, Levi’s been preaching bad science at us.”

“What?” Armin says, shaking his drink slightly to integrate it with the ice. “It’s all made sense so far.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t paying that close attention when they dragged him, but it was really funny,” Eren says. “How is everything?”

“Well, I think Jean had something he wanted to say,” Armin says pointedly, then when Jean doesn’t react, he gently flings a pen at him. “Jean. Talk to Eren.”

Jean grumbles, pausing his game and hiding under his blanket. “No. Fuck off.”

“Listen, Armin, it’s fine, I don’t want to talk to Jean,” Eren says.

“But he promised,” Armin insists. “Come on, Jean, it’s not that hard.”

Jean grumbles even more loudly. “Eren,” he says from under the blanket, muffled and reluctant. “Sorry for not believing you about the ghosts.”

“Oh, dude,” Eren says, laughing. “I was expecting you to say you used the rest of my shampoo or some shit. I don’t care what you think about me, you kidding?”

“He accepts my apology, now leave me alone, Armin,” Jean complains, poking his head out of the blanket to glare. “Didn’t you want to bug him about something, too?”

“Why am I getting Spanish Inquisition’d? I just got here,” Eren says, coming further into the room and making plans to steal Armin’s iced coffee.

“I was just curious about Levi,” Armin says innocently, and Eren immediately goes pink and mumbly. “No, no, I don’t want to know details or anything. It’s your business. Just curious. Has it been going on long? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Um, nothing’s even really ‘going on,’” Eren says, making a little face. “We haven’t talked about it. I… I guess he likes me?”

“You _guess_?” Jean says, emerging from under the blanket to stare at Eren in shock. “He’s _literally_ all over you all the time. It’s so fucking gross. No offense, but I don’t know what he sees in you, you’re _such_ an idiot.”

“That’s very offensive, Jean, saying ‘no offense’ doesn’t change that, we’ve been over this,” Armin says tiredly. “So you guess he likes you. Do you like him?”

“Stop it,” Eren whines, blushing harder by the second. “You think he’s all over me, really?”

“I don’t think, I _know_ ,” Jean says, oddly pointed and still staring at Eren. “I have eyes and I can see. He’s always looking at you? And talking to you?”

“You do that, too, and you aren’t into me,” Eren says, making the sign of the cross.

“Okay, but it’s different,” Jean says, rolling his eyes. “Armin, back me up on this.”

“Jean’s right,” Armin says. “Everyone else in the room can see it. Everyone else — but you.”

Eren squints at him. He thinks those might be One Direction lyrics. “I guess he wouldn’t kiss me if he didn’t like me.”

“I can’t believe that you graduated from college and you’re supposed to be the smart one and yet,” Jean says, “you are such a fool.”

“Marco didn’t even know your name for months!” Eren defends, pouting. “Pot, kettle. How very dare you.”

Jean shrugs, turning the volume up on his game to indicate that the conversation is over. “Yeah, but difference is, he and I are getting down on the regular, so I’m still winning.”

Eren scowls and stomps off to his room, Armin’s iced coffee forgotten. And Levi had been so flustered by Hange’s extremely mild teasing. Jean and Armin could do much worse, but he hasn’t told them enough yet; there’s not even all that much to tell. With anyone else, he’d be disappointed that he hadn’t gone all the way, but with Levi, it seems different; he wants Levi more than he wants to be alive, probably, but he’s also terrified of being in some way dissatisfactory. Better to wait, he decides, until he’s more certain that Levi likes him, and then he’ll make more moves.

He doesn’t hear from Levi for the next few days, but Levi reads all the texts he sends. Eren gets so happy when he sees the status go from ‘Delivered’ to ‘Read at’ and the current time that it’s a little absurd. Eren sends him pictures of weird things he finds at the mall, interesting clouds, and how clean his room is. He even risks a good morning text or two. He doesn’t want to bother him, though, so he tries to hold off on texting him until it’s time to tell him when and where their next site is. Eren being Eren, though, he procrastinates it until that afternoon, and sends a text full of exclamation points and apologies for such short notice and emojis. Levi, instead of replying, just calls him.

“That text was illegible,” Levi says, not even waiting for Eren to say hello. “Decipher it.”

“Hi!” Eren says, suddenly breathless at the sound of Levi’s voice. “Hi. Um, we’re doing the thing tonight, and we thought we’d try the Oriental Theater, so… Can you make it? Sorry for the short notice.”

Levi thinks about it for a moment. “Yes, I don’t have other plans. You’ll have to pick me up, though. My car is at my house and I’m at Hange’s.”

“No problem!” Eren says, nervous and excited to see Levi even though they’ve only been apart less than a week. “I’m out and about right now, anyway, I’ll just swing by and chauffeur you.”

“I’ll send you the address,” Levi says. “See you soon.” He hangs up before Eren has the chance to confirm this, and in another moment, Eren’s phone buzzes with a text containing Hange’s address. 

Eren is nervous as hell as he drives down to the UChicago area. Levi hadn’t sounded any different on the phone; Eren, meanwhile, has no doubts that he’d sounded high-pitched and anxious and overall foolish. Maybe, in the days they’ve spent apart, Levi has changed his mind about Eren, or maybe Eren had imagined the whole thing anyway. His heart is in his throat by the time he pulls up in front of Hange’s house and sees Levi outside, but, true to form, Levi’s face doesn’t give anything away as he steps up to open the door and get in.

“Hi,” Eren says, looking over to him and unable to help his smile. “What’s up?”

Levi tosses his bag into the back and buckles up. “Hello. Not much.” He stretches out his legs and then pauses, glancing down. “Are these… my Craisins?”

Eren looks over again and laughs. “Yeah. Farlan told me to grab them for you for the road a while ago and I forgot to give them back.”

“Oh. I was wondering where they went.” Levi opens the bag and eats a handful. “Do you want some?”

“Nah, thanks,” Eren says. “And if you want and/or need napkins, they’re in the glove compartment.”

Levi nods, looking out of the window as he munches on his Craisins. Eren’s chest feels too tight and he can’t stop sneaking glances at Levi out of the corner of his eye. 

“How’ve you been?” Eren asks after a few moments. “Sorry if I texted you too much.”

“I’ve been doing well, Hange’s given me lots of work to do,” Levi says. “I’m getting a crash-course on quantum physics. I’m a humanities person, not hard sciences by any means, so it’s been… slow going. You haven’t texted me too much, it’s fine.”

“Well, you never text me back, so I don’t know. Quantum, huh?” Eren says, wistfully remembering his college days when he’d thought, for about a week, that he could become a physicist. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“They have this theory that ghosts are quantum,” Levi says, offering Eren the bag of Craisins at a red light. Eren shakes his head, not wanting to deprive Levi of any of them. “That would explain why they don’t make any fucking sense. Ghosts, I mean, not Hange, although Hange also makes very little sense. Anyway, I’m still learning, so I can’t tell you any more for fear of getting it all wrong.”

“I’ll ask Hange about it myself, then,” Eren says, smiling. “Are you having a fun time?”

“It’s hard to say,” Levi says, closing the bag of Craisins. “I think I might be, but I also feel like I’m studying for exams. Napkins in the glove compartment, you said?” After Eren confirms this, he opens the glove compartment and frowns, withdrawing an unopened pack of Mavericks. “Eren. Are these yours?”

Eren glances over and blushes, quickly looking back at the road again. “Uh, I—”

“I didn’t think you smoked,” Levi says, still frowning. “Have you started? Because you should really consider the health risks, especially—”

“Levi,” Eren interrupts, blushing harder but starting to smile. “They’re not for me.”

Levi blinks down at the cigarettes and goes very faintly pink as well. “Oh.” He turns the pack over in his hand a few times, at a loss for words, and then delicately puts it back in the glove compartment. “Thank you.”

“You should be giving yourself that health warning speech, not me,” Eren murmurs, smiling. “But I’m touched.”

“Tch. I have plenty of my own, you know,” Levi mumbles.

“Yeah, but I know you like to stash them in little secret places around your house, so I thought you should have one stashed here, too,” Eren shrugs. There had been more reasoning that went into it, but he doesn’t want to scare Levi off by being too sappy or anything. He’s sure Levi can figure it out for himself, anyway.

“Thank you,” Levi says again, more quietly. Eren glances over to him to see if he’s upset, but he’s not; he actually has a small smile on his lips as he delicately wipes his hands of Craisin residue. And at the next red light Eren stops at, Levi leans over and kisses him. Eren turns his head to kiss him back as best he can before the light turns green again, heart like a caged bird in his chest that’s about to break free. He’s so happy that Levi doesn’t seem to have changed his mind. He does have to drive, though, so this time Eren breaks the kiss in favor of looking out at the street ahead, a dazed little smile on his lips. “Are Jean and Armin meeting us there?”

“Jean would rather die than take public transit, that LA bitch, and Armin hates spending money on Uber, so we have to pick them up, unforch,” Eren says. “It’ll be okay, we’ll just exile them to the back and they won’t bother us.”

Levi’s smiling to himself, looking out of the window. “Somehow I doubt that even a quarantine would make them less bothersome.”

“You’re such an amazing judge of character,” Eren grins. “You look good today, by the way.”

Levi glances down at his outfit and raises an eyebrow. “I look exactly the same as usual.”

“Uh huh,” Eren says, grinning more widely. Levi rolls his eyes and huffs, but Eren sees his smile even though he’s trying hard to hide it.

“Flirt,” Levi mutters. “Shut up and drive.”

Eren shuts up and drives, trying to keep his horrible, happy grin under control. After all, they have work to do. He just hopes that he’ll be able to keep it together once they’re at the site and won’t spend the whole time staring at Levi. “Where are your fingerless gloves?” he asks, glancing over with a slightly teasing smile.

“In my bag,” Levi replies, and he looks so at home in the passenger seat of the van that Eren’s chest constricts again. “Why?”

“I’m jealous, I wish I had a trademark outfit that I wore every time I went bustin’,” Eren sighs. “And they look good.”

“Do they? Now I’m self-conscious,” Levi says. “I didn’t know you’d noticed.”

“I’m really observant,” Eren lies blatantly. He’s observant when it comes to minute details of Levi’s appearance and just about nothing else. “Are they lucky or something?”

“No,” Levi says, raising his eyebrows. “They keep my hands warm.”

Eren hadn’t been expecting such a mundane reason, but in retrospect, it makes sense. “Fair enough. I really want matching jackets, like, with our names on the back and the logo on the front? I think that’d be so cool.”

“You think wrong,” Levi says and Eren pouts. “You wouldn’t look like action heroes, you'd look like a bowling league. I’m speaking from experience.”

“What,” Eren says, laughing. “Explain.”

Levi shakes his head. “It’s not much of a story. I had a small group of friends when I was at university. One of them was very rich and ordered us all custom jackets. We looked ridiculous and never wore them again. I think mine is still at my mom’s place in Toronto, so don’t get your hopes up for a fashion show.”

“Toronto,” Eren says, marveling. He’d almost forgotten that Levi was actually Canadian. “Did you pick Chicago ‘cause the climate is similar?”

Levi huffs a laugh. “No.” He doesn’t sound like he’s in the mood to talk about it more, though, so Eren leaves it for now and focuses on driving. He catches Levi watching him once or twice, but doesn’t call him on it, filing it away in his mental folder of happy things to think about later instead.

As they start into Evanston, Eren tosses his phone to Levi. “Can you call Armin and tell him we’re, like, five minutes away? I don’t wanna wait around for them for too long.”

“Okay,” Levi says, carefully unlocking Eren’s phone and finding Armin’s contact. “Five minutes, you said?”

“Yep,” Eren says, glancing over at him. Levi dials the number and lifts the phone to his ear, looking focused and professional.

“Hello, Armin, it’s Levi,” he says once Armin has picked up. “No, he’s fine, just driving. He says to tell you we’re five minutes away and to start getting ready. Okay, I will. See you.” Levi hangs up and returns the phone to Eren. “He says Jean is doing his hair and might take a while.”

Eren rolls his eyes. “Fucking Jean. Ever since he got a boyfriend he’s been, like, so much more annoying than usual, which I didn’t think was possible.”

“Oh, so it’s official, now?” Levi murmurs. “What’s the boyfriend like?”

“He’s actually a normal person!” Eren says. “To everyone’s surprise. I thought the only type of guy who’d want to date Jean would be another psycho, but no, he’s totally fine. Really nice. They’re a sappy couple, too, all lovey-dovey. It’s weird as hell to see Jean like that, but as long as they don’t get jizz on my stuff I’m happy for them.”

Levi makes a strange sound. Eren looks over to him and he’s smiling without even trying to hide it, elbow on the window and chin in his palm. “You have such a way with words, Eren.”

“What else am I meant to say!” Eren defends, laughing. “That’s my honest analysis of the situation! What, you want me to lie?”

Levi shakes his head, still smiling. “I wasn’t criticizing you. I like the way you talk.”

Eren goes tongue-tied immediately, cheeks red and eyes sparkling. “Okay,” he finally says, grinning. “I like the way you talk, too.”

Levi nods and doesn’t otherwise respond, leaving Eren alone to deal with his overwhelming thoughts about Levi liking him and Levi paying attention to Eren’s friends’ drama and Levi, if Eren gets very lucky, kissing him again.

When they pull up to the apartment, Armin and Jean are both outside with their bags. Jean’s hair looks no different from usual. They get into the back of the van, Jean grumbling immediately that Levi gets shotgun. Eren grins over at Levi and revs the engine a few times just because, and earns an eyeroll for his efforts.

“I know a stage manager at the theater,” Armin explains as Eren drives. “That’s how we’re getting in after it’s closed. We have to be careful about mentioning her or showing her in the video, though, because I do not want to risk getting her fired.”

“We’ll be careful,” Eren promises. “Man, how’d you pull off getting a favor like that?”

Armin shrugs, smiling. “I introduced her to her girlfriend in college. She thinks she owes me for life.”

“Cute,” Eren says, just as Jean says, “Gay.” Eren thinks about it, then shrugs and also agrees, “Gay.”

Despite growing more used to him over the course of the past few weeks, Armin and Jean are clearly somewhat stymied by Levi’s presence in the van, and the rambunctiousness that usually precedes their hunts is for the most part absent. Levi doesn’t seem to notice, and it’s probably for the best that they’re not all on their worst behavior, anyway. Eren’s pretty sure that Levi doesn’t question his commitment anymore, but it’s better to be safe than sorry in situations like this.

They park in the back lot of the theater and Eren watches Levi pull on his gloves as Jean unloads the van and Armin chats with the stage manager. Levi is so graceful, not a single movement out of place, even when he’s doing something so simple as smoothing out the fabric over his wrist. Levi must feel Eren watching him, because he glances up once he’s done and raises his eyebrows at him. Eren shakes his head, smiling slightly, and Levi gets out a cigarette and steps aside so he can smoke without bothering anyone.

Eren goes over to meet Armin’s friend, then, and shakes her hand. “Thanks so much for letting us do this,” he says. “Hopefully we get some good shit.”

“Seems like you always do, pal. I watched your videos, and I thought they were— uh, I mean, Krista, my girlfriend, she thought they were pretty scary. I didn’t think they were scary,” the young woman, introduced to him as Ymir, says confidently. “Funny, though. Good luck tonight.”

“You ever seen a ghost in there?” Eren says, half-joking, and Ymir’s eyes widen.

“I thought your videos were fake, hang on, is this place actually haunted?” she asks, an edge of anxiety in her voice.

Eren grins and taps the EMF meter he’s got strapped to his backpack. “That’s what we’re here to find out. Don’t worry, if it is, we’ll take care of the problem for you. We’re the Bust Ghosters, not the Chill With Ghosters, right?”

“I guess,” Ymir says dubiously. Armin frowns at Eren for making promises he can’t keep, but Eren isn’t paying attention anymore, he’s watching Levi, who is standing by the stage door and finishing his cigarette.

Drawn as if by a magnet, Eren excuses himself from the conversation and goes over to Levi, smiling at him. “Hey. You excited?”

Instead of answering, Levi exhales smoke out of the corner of his mouth and nods to Ymir and Armin. “What’d you tell her? She looks terrified.”

Eren glances back and laughs. “She didn’t know we were doing this seriously until now, and she’s scared of the ghosts, I guess.”

“Reasonable,” Levi says. “More likely than not, she has nothing to be scared of.”

Eren sighs. “Not this again, come on. We saw one last time, there’s no way you’re still gonna do your whole ‘this is a difficult and pointless search 99% of the time’ thing.”

“Don’t be so negative.” Levi drops his cigarette and neatly grinds it out. “I just meant that most spirits seem to be pretty harmless. Don’t attack unless provoked.”

“Oh.” Eren smiles, extremely happy that his optimism has rubbed off on Levi. “You gotta admit they’re spooky, though.”

“Mm, I don’t know if that’s the word I’d use.” Before Eren can even see it coming, Levi steps close and leans up, pressing their lips together briefly. He tastes like smoke and cranberries. Eren breathes out softly into the kiss, and Levi steps back in another moment and nods. “Let’s go.”

Eren has no idea how Levi can kiss him and be all nonchalant a second later, because it always takes Eren a little while to find his head again. Once he does, he follows him obediently, getting his camera out of his backpack, but more for documentation purposes than for the sake of the vlog. 

Armin, meanwhile, is handing Jean a disposable camera and teaching him how to use it. “Jean had this idea that the film might not get wiped like Eren’s camera did that one time,” he explains, glancing at Levi for confirmation.

“Hang on, _Jean_ had an _idea_?” Eren says, raising his eyebrows.

“I was just as surprised as you are, believe me,” Armin sighs. “Anyway, we’ll see, and it’s always good to have a backup. Do you— Jean, stop it, don’t waste the film.”

Jean is taking a middle finger tongue-out selfie on it. “Okay, yeah, I got it,” he says, winding the little wheel to reset the film for the next picture. “See you on the other side, blah blah.”

“Actually,” Armin says shyly, “I thought maybe I could come in with you, this time. If that’s okay.”

Jean and Armin both stare at him. “Are you serious?” Eren says. “Hell yeah, that’s okay, you know you’re always invited.”

Armin smiles his cute dimply smile, then hurries back to the van to get his own bag, which is considerably smaller but presumably more efficiently packed. “Okay! Let’s go!”

Ymir opens the stage door for them and they go in.

The main lights are all off, but there are small rows of blue lights lining the bases of the walls. “Ghost lights,” Ymir whispers as she leads them through the theater and out to the lobby. “Fitting name, huh!”

Eren grins over at Levi, but Levi’s gone into ghost hunting mode and doesn’t have time to smile. They walk through in relative silence, occasionally checking their various meters just in case, and when they reach the lobby, Ymir frowns and gestures for all of them to hide behind a column. 

“What’s wrong?” Armin whispers, already looking anxious.

Ymir shakes her head. “Nothing, I just thought I saw someone.”

“A ghost someone or a someone someone?” Jean asks, snapping his gum. “Either way, we’ll bust ‘em for ya.”

Eren kicks Jean in the ankle. “We’ll make this quick,” he promises Ymir. “We’ll know pretty soon if there’s nothing here for us.”

Ymir nods, then allows them all to emerge from behind the column and resume making their way through the lobby. The booth where the box office is now, legend has it, is where the great fire that killed more than 600 people in 1903 began, so that’s where they’re centering their activities for the night. Eren hops the counter and takes everyone’s bags from them to start setting up, humming to himself as he gets out their various EMFs and compasses and whatever assorted other things Armin packed for them.

“Well, I’ll leave you to it, I guess?” Ymir whispers, glancing around. 

“I’ll text you when we’re heading out,” Armin nods, midway through strapping on some night vision goggles, but he’s distracted by the sound of tires squealing right outside. He frowns and leans forward to see out of the window, and Eren does the same, seeing a huge van with the Discovery channel logo across the side in a slapdash parking job in front of the main entrance. “What…”

A door opens and closes somewhere above where they’re all standing and Ymir glances up to see, swearing immediately and ducking her head so her face isn’t visible. “It’s the building manager, fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.”

“What’s going on?” Eren whispers, craning his neck to see more. Out of the van springs a wiry guy with a buzzcut wearing denim on denim and a merrily yelling girl with her arms full of clipboards. He glances up to see the man who’s presumably the building manager hurrying down to open the door for them, and gestures for everyone to get down behind the counter so they’re not immediately visible but can still watch what’s happening.

The girl lets the buzzcut guy talk to the manager while she goes back to the Discovery channel van, then runs back inside lugging a boom mic and a huge film camera. Eren glances from the camera to the van, then starts to get an idea, a crazy, hopeful idea, and stands up slowly.

“Eren, what are you doing,” Armin whispers urgently, plucking at his shirt. “Get back down.”

Eren shakes him off and makes eye contact with the guy, who raises his eyebrows questioningly but doesn’t look overly fazed. Eren makes a face that he hopes indicates that they’re there for the ghosts, and the building manager turns to see what’s being looked at. “Who the hell are you?” he asks, surprised.

“We’re with them,” Eren says, grabbing Armin and Jean by the collars and dragging them up so they’re standing as well. The buzzcut guy rolls his eyes and doesn’t dispute this. “Uh, we’re the advance team, we do the… preliminaries.”

The building manager grunts. “Just don’t break anything.”

“Eren, what the fuck,” Jean hisses, elbowing him. “What is this?”

“Just wait,” Eren says, staring at the van outside. “I think that’s—”

“Wait, no way,” Armin says, gasping. “No way.”

Eren nods, starting to grin. “Look, just look, I think—”

The van’s back doors bust open and, more beautiful than God and twice as rich, they come out all at once.

It’s as if the world becomes slow motion as they walk to the door. They’re in sunglasseseven though it’s night and matching jackets. Annie Leonhart, the brilliant and reclusive scientist of the Ghost-Mythbusters team, pauses at the double doors, and the others open both of them for her in sync. She strides through and slides her sunglasses off, tossing her head to get her blond bangs out of her face. The redheaded girl hoists her camera up and starts rolling, and buzzcut guy grabs the boom mic and gets in position.

Annie looks around the lobby, eyes lidded and disdainful. “We’ve got a lot of work to do,” she says, voice quiet but still piercing through the dusty air.

“Then let’s get started,” Reiner Braun, made entirely of muscle and charisma, grins, whipping off his sunglasses and tossing them aside as if they’re not worth more than Eren’s monthly rent. 

“Would you mind telling us about the things you’ve been seeing here?” the final member of the team, impossibly gentle and impossibly tall Bertholdt Hoover, says, putting his sunglasses in his shirt pocket and smiling at the building manager. “Whatever your problem is, we’ll have a solution.”

“Who are they?” Ymir whispers to Eren. “And why are they so _cool_?”

Eren, Jean, and Armin are all staring in awe and incapable of speech as they watch Annie sit down in the middle of the floor and boot up a laptop computer while Reiner starts up the grand stairs of the lobby. 

Levi rolls his eyes. “They have a TV show,” he answers. The girl with the camera passes the camera off to the buzzcut guy, then sprints out of the front doors to the van and returns with two yoga mats. “It’s not very good.”

Eren, Jean, and Armin all shush him aggressively, then continue staring, enraptured. The girl throws the yoga mats down on the floor right below where the overlook of the stairs is, then runs back over to grab the camera again. Eren’s not thinking about the possibility of them being arrested for breaking and entering, trespassing, or being within 150 feet of demigods; he’s just watching them move around the space and trying not to pass out.

“I’m definitely feeling something,” Bertholdt says. “I felt it the moment we walked in. I think you’re right, Mr. Jones, we’re not alone in this theater.”

“Of course we’re not,” Annie murmurs, sighing and closing her eyes. “We’re not alone anywhere we go.”

“Enough!” Reiner booms, and Eren slaps a hand over his own mouth to keep from gasping as Reiner jumps off of the bannister, does a few front flips, and lands on the yoga mats. “Take us to where the fire was. That’s where the energy is coming from. It’s speaking to me.”

“It’s speaking to my computer, too,” Annie says. “I have to see it for myself. No matter how many times this theater changes its name, it can never change its… past.”

“Oh,” Jean whispers, shaking from excitement, “my fucking God.”

Bertholdt comes over and offers Annie a hand, which she takes and stands up. She leads him over to where the camera is, which gives the videographer girl time to sprint over again and get rid of the yoga mats. 

“Dark things have happened here,” Reiner says darkly, pulling an enormous flashlight seemingly out of nowhere and pointing it dramatically around the ceiling of the lobby. “Be careful, Bertholdt.”

“I told you he was worried about you,” Annie murmurs, taking Bertholdt by the arm. “Especially after what happened last time.”

“And I told you — I’m fine,” Bertholdt says, sounding noble, selfless, and gorgeous. “I don’t want to burden anyone.”

“Paraphysical possession is no joke,” Annie says. This will look amazing in post-production, Eren just knows it. “You’re so strong for dealing with it the way you did.”

“I can’t fucking believe this,” Eren breathes, eyes huge. “They’re _awesome_.”

“They’re charlatans,” Levi says dismissively. “And they’re ruining our hunt.”

“Careful, Reiner!” Bertholdt says, looking over quickly when he sees Reiner testing the lock on the door that leads into the theater itself. “Don’t disturb its home!”

“Please, Bertholdt,” Reiner scoffs, and, after some sleight-of-hand replacement of the lock, kicks the door open in one powerful move. “You know that’s a myth. And myths… are what we are here to bust.”

“Myths and ghosts,” Annie corrects. “Do that take again.”

Reiner sighs, putting his hands on his hips. “It’s clunky. I don’t want to say it like that.”

“What do you think, Sasha?” Annie says, turning to the girl operating the camera for advice.

“I wasn’t really listening,” the girl admits with a shrug. 

“Has anyone else noticed that we’re not alone in here?” the guy with the boom mic says.

“Well… yeah, Connie, that’s the premise of the show,” Bertholdt points out gently. Armin, very quietly, wheezes.

“Thanks, Bert,” Connie says. “I meant the jokesters over there.”

“Who’s a jokester!” Eren says on reflex, frowning. “We’re scientists!”

The Ghost-Mythbusters go still, looking over for the first time to see the rag-tag team behind the box office desk. The full force of their attention is an almost physical sensation and Eren goes a little weak at the knees. “Who the fuck are you?” Annie asks. Jean makes an extremely small sound.

Eren has no idea how to get out of this one, looking nervously from Armin and Jean to the genius superstars frowning at them, and starts to stammer something before Levi sighs long-sufferingly and hops over the counter, striding over to Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt without looking back. “We’re friends of Dr. Hange Zoe’s,” he says, crossing his arms. “I believe you’re acquainted.”

Annie’s eyes widen and she looks interested in the proceedings for the first time. “I wasn’t aware Dr. Zoe had reconsidered their position on working with us.”

“They haven’t,” Levi says. “In fact, you can think of this as a formal rejection, as they’ve found a new team to sponsor.”

“A new team?” Annie says, raising a perfect eyebrow. Eren barely restrains a whimper. “I was under the impression that they were uninterested in collaboration because they disagree with the methodology of paranormal investigation as a whole.”

“No. They disagree with your methodology specifically,” Levi says coolly. “At first, I attempted to campaign in your favor, but after seeing what I just saw, I couldn't be happier that I didn’t succeed.”

Annie frowns. “Excuse me, but—”

“The amount of disrespect,” Levi continues more firmly, “that you have for this location is astounding. The dispelling of myths is the last thing the Oriental Theater needs; _au contraire_ , the protection it is afforded by these legends keeps it free of vandalism and disrepair. How long has your little show been on television? Six years? The spirits that haunt these walls have been here for more than a century. And you have the nerve, the absolute egoism, to think that you have the right to deprive them of their home. How typically American, to evict the peaceful residents of a peaceful community, and then vilify said residents as if it’s their fault you evicted them. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

“Who _are_ you?” Reiner says, awed.

“The real deal,” Levi says, staring him down. “Believe it or not, it is possible to conduct research into the supernatural without melodrama or artifice. We don’t seek acclaim, notoriety, or even approval. All we seek is the truth.”

“And have you found it?” Annie asks, trying to turn things back in her favor.

Levi juts his chin up. The lines of his shoulders could launch a thousand ships. “It found us.”

Eren has no idea if this is working or if one of the crew is calling the cops on them right now, but it would seem they’ve come to a standstill, and he’s also never been more turned on by someone just talking.

“Now, I’m not going to tell you to give up your jobs, repent, anything like that,” Levi says, taking advantage of the stunned silence he’d created with his latest declaration. “But consider this a wake-up call. For every one of your episodes that makes it on air, for every undeserved pay raise you get from the Discovery channel, there are a hundred, a thousand hardworking so-called amateurs like _my team_ breaking their backs and risking their lives to meet with only derision and disdain from the scientific community and the paranormal investigation community alike. Have some respect. Get some perspective. And leave these ghosts the fuck alone.”

He turns away and starts to return to the desk. Eren hasn’t taken a breath in the past five minutes and thinks he may be about to die.

“Whoa,” Ymir whispers, staring at him. “He’s amazing. I thought we were toast for sure.”

“I’m going to be with him for the rest of my life,” Eren murmurs, dazed.

“W-wait!” Bertholdt says, impressed. “Who are you, really?”

Levi pauses and looks back at them. “We,” he says, voice ringing clear and true, “are the Bust Ghosters.” It sounds dazzlingly cool for a second and Eren’s heart swells, but then the moment passes and Annie wrinkles her nose.

“The… Bust Ghosters?” she says. “Are you serious?”

“Ghost-Mythbusters, you are not ones to judge others on unfortunate name choices,” Levi says. “For the record, I didn’t pick it. Goodbye.” He turns away again and, face grim, walks back to the desk. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Okay,” Eren breathes, barely even capable of using his body anymore as he sort of picks up his backpack. “What— how did— why—”

“You should never meet your heroes,” Levi says dryly, then grabs Eren’s backpack from him, along with Armin’s. “Tall lesbian, lead the way.”

“I say yes Daddy I do,” Ymir says and hurries out of the lobby before her building manager can get close enough of a look at her to be able to see who it is.

As soon as they’re in the back alley of the theater, Jean yells and punches the air. “Holy _shit_!”

Armin flings himself onto Levi’s neck, hugging him tightly, and breathlessly says, “I’m only hugging you because I couldn’t hug the Ghost-Mythbusters because you were literally murdering them. Oh, my God. Where did that come from?!”

Levi pats his back awkwardly and Armin lets him go, still looking like a kid on Christmas, and runs over to whisper excitedly with Jean about the Ghost-Mythbusters.

“I have no idea what just happened, but I’m probably gonna be telling my grandchildren about it,” Ymir says, laughing. She claps Levi on the back. “That was one hell of a read, my friend. I’ve seen a lot of different people try different ways to get out of trouble, but never anything as goddamn spectacular as that.” She looks around, grinning, and zips up her jacket. “I’m gonna bounce before Jones realizes I was there and tries to fire me. Thanks for a fun night!”

“Bye, let’s get bubble tea next week!” Armin somehow has the wherewithal to say as Ymir jumps on a bug-green Vespa and zooms away.

Eren hasn’t moved from the first spot he got to after escaping the theater, and he’s staring at Levi, wordless and feeling like he’s been put through a paper shredder. “Levi…”

Levi looks at him, lips quirking slightly. “What?”

“What— what do you mean, _what_!” Eren splutters. “Come here, that’s what!”

Levi, bemused, comes over and looks up at him. “What ridiculous compliment are you going to try and give me, then? That was nothing. We needed to get out, I got us out. That’s all it was. And fortunately for all of us, those _clowns_ tried to recruit Hange to work on their little show a few years back, so I knew what to say.”

Eren makes a sound that can scarcely be compared to any human sound, grabs Levi by the waist, and kisses him. It’s not much of a kiss because he’s still too dazed to be able to concentrate on technique, but it gets the point across.

When they break apart, Levi is pink and very pleased. “Yeah, yeah. You’re welcome. Seriously, let’s get out of here. IHOP?”

“Anywhere you want,” Eren says dreamily, and follows him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is SO LONG i am SO SORRY. title taken from the only ghost adventures episode that takes place in chicago: it’s about the excalibur nightclub, which is in chicago and very haunted. just a little tribute to zak bagans, my least favorite person in the world. the excalibur isn’t where the hunt happens in this chapter though — that happens at the oriental theater, formerly the iroquois theater. there really was a fire there and it really is supposedly haunted but i fudged a lot of the other facts lol… the ghost-mythbusters was one of my fav sequences to write in the whole fic and im seriously considering writing a script for one of their episodes! thank you for reading, pls pls review and let me know your thoughts <3 <3 i'll be back for more next week!! hopefully, so will you <3


	10. The Sixth Sense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I, personally, have never trusted Hatsune Miku.”
> 
> Exciting news on the ghost front. Maybe not so much on the romantic front.

There are no more scheduled windows that any of them can find for the next few weeks, so Levi relents and allows them to have some downtime. It’s a Sunday when they all gather at the apartment, which is pretty rare and exciting, since Jean and Armin’s days off almost never align with Eren’s. 

Levi, bless his heart, appears to have rented _Ghostbusters 2_ on DVD somewhere and brought it over for the watching. Armin very politely tells him that there’s no abomination in the history of film greater than _Ghostbusters 2_ , but Eren feels bad that all Levi’s effort will go to waste and says they should watch it anyway. 

So they all settle on the couch with a giant-ass bowl of popcorn to watch it. Eren gave up his usual spot on the couch for Levi, so he’s sitting on the floor. He could lean his head on Levi’s knee, but he doubts Levi would let him keep it there, so he doesn’t. Levi’s hand is also very close to Eren’s hair and Eren gets a little thrill every time he moves it, just on the slim chance he might actually touch him. Every quiet rustle of Levi’s clothes as he breathes gets Eren distracted.

“Sigourney deserved better,” Armin mumbles, wearing his Ghostbusters shirt defiantly and glowering at the screen. 

“I thought you liked Bill Murray,” Levi says, glancing over at him, and Armin goes ‘tch,’ which he probably picked up from Levi, and shakes his head. “Fine. Explain why this movie is bad.”

“Armin’s a purist,” Eren explains, since Armin just scoffs in response and crosses his arms. “He thinks the original movie is, like, perfect, and this one is just a pathetic, obvious—”

“Pathetic, obvious attempt to gain more revenue through merchandise and advertising,” Armin says angrily. “It totally goes against the spirit of the original. It’s disgusting.”

Levi looks very amused. “We didn’t have to watch it.”

“He loves to hate it, ignore him,” Eren says, and, in a fit of boldness, gently headbutts Levi’s knee. “We should go see the new one.”

“Is that what that text meant?” Levi says, then shushes him and gestures to the screen, where something exciting is happening.

“Jean,” Armin snaps. “Get off your phone and hate this film with me.”

Jean looks up, cheeks red. “What? Sorry, Marco’s sending me nudes.”

“Gross!” Eren complains loudly as Armin, distracted, demands to see so he can help Jean formulate a response. Levi offers Eren the bowl of popcorn and Eren smiles brilliantly up at him, taking it and then basically just putting his whole face inside to eat it. Levi makes a horrified sound and kicks Eren in the side. Once he’s kicked him, though, he doesn’t move his leg away again, meaning Eren is leaning against it. Eren is pleased as punch by this development and, inexplicably, blushes, considering putting his hand on Levi’s ankle if he gets brave enough.

However, he doesn’t have much time to develop this plan, because there is very loud knocking on the door.

Armin, delighted, pauses the movie. “Oh, no! Someone’s at the door! We have to stop watching!”

“Uh oh,” Levi murmurs. Eren looks up at him, confused, as Armin jumps off the couch to go see who’s at the door. The knocking comes again, even more intense than before, and Levi sighs. “Brace yourself.”

“Why?” Eren says. “How do you know who it is?”

“I just know. It’s fine.” Levi nods slightly towards the door and Eren turns to look, watching Armin step back from looking through the eye to open it.

The quiet left in the apartment by the pausing of the movie lasts another two seconds before Hange bursts inside, followed by the most stressed-looking human being Eren has ever seen in his life (and he witnessed Armin finishing his thesis paper, so that’s saying something). “Hello!” Hange shouts, their arms full of boxes and containers. “Moby, don’t drop the speaker!”

“I won’t,” comes a faint mumble from behind them as Hange comes into the living room, grinning from ear to ear.

“Gentlemen! Hello, again! _Very_ exciting news,” they say, putting their hands on their hips. “We found— oh, what is that, the second Ghostbusters? Love that movie.”

Armin makes a shocked sound from by the door but evidently thinks it’d be rude to physically fight a houseguest, so doesn’t say anything else.

“Hi, Hange,” Eren says, clumsily standing up and setting the popcorn down on the coffee table. “What’s going on?”

“Yeah, what is going on?” Jean says, looking up from his phone for the first time in a while. “Who are you?”

“Couldn’t you have called ahead?” Levi mutters.

“What’s the point? You needed to know about this right now,” Hange insists. “Eren, clear off the table, I have to put all of this down somewhere.”

Eren glances at Levi, who looks as bored as ever, and shrugs, turning to start picking mugs and books off the coffee table so Hange has enough room. “Uh— Armin, you be hospitable, I’m busy.”

“Right,” Armin says, scampering forward. “Hello, I’m Armin, I guess you’ve already met Eren, and Jean is over there. Welcome to our home! I’m really sorry it’s so messy.”

“Levi’s house is worse,” Hange says and winks at him. 

Eren huffs, offended on Levi’s behalf, and is rewarded when, out of the corner of his eye, he sees Levi smiling. He gets the table’s surface free enough that Hange can start unloading everything they’re holding, stepping back so as not to interfere. “What’d you say about exciting news?”

“I’ll explain once I’ve set up,” Hange says, eating a handful of popcorn as they spread papers out.

“Uh, okay,” Eren says. “Sorry, Armin, looks like we won’t be able to finish the movie.”

“ _Tragic_ ,” Armin sighs, practically skipping over to take the DVD out of the player.

Eren glances back at Levi, who looks amused again. “I promise it’s nothing personal. Thank you so much for bringing it, seriously.”

Levi shrugs one shoulder, holding a hand out for the disc once Armin brings it over. “I have a membership card at my local rental place. If you ever want anything else…”

“…I’ll find it on Netflix,” Eren says, grinning at him. “Thanks. Um, can I get anyone a drink?”

“Sure! Go,” Hange says, waving their hand at the stressed young man who has very delicately set down a large black box. “Where’s the kitchen?”

“Over here,” Eren says, gesturing, and the young man sighs and takes off his shoes before going over to it. Eren follows him, a little confused. “Uh?”

“Dr. Zoe has a very particular ratio of lemon to water that they like,” the young man explains, rubbing his eyes. “Do you have lemon?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Eren says, getting out a glass and opening the fridge. This is probably Hange’s assistant, and Eren can sort of understand why he looks so overworked. “Moby, was it?”

The young man looks very, very weary and shakes his head. “Moblit. Please.”

“Moblit. Got it,” Eren says, handing him a lemon and the least dirty of the cutting boards. He stands back as Moblit begins to slice the lemon into dainty wedges, mildly concerned for his well-being. “Are you okay, man?”

“I haven’t slept in two days,” Moblit says with the tragic matter-of-factness of someone who hasn’t slept in two days. “And Dr. Zoe made me miss the Game of Thrones season finale.”

“Damn,” Eren says, biting his lip and trying not to laugh. “That’s rough.”

Moblit nods, filling the glass Eren had given him with water and holding it up to see how much he’d poured before putting in three and a half slices of lemon. “So you believe in ghosts?”

“Uh, yeah,” Eren says, nonplussed. “I’ve seen a couple, actually. Do you?”

“It’s not about what I believe,” Moblit says. “It’s about the facts.”

“And… what do the facts say?” Eren says, not sure what Moblit is trying to determine.

“The facts speak for themselves. I was just asking,” Moblit says, and leaves the kitchen.

Eren blinks, totally lost, and follows him out. Hange has set up a small computer monitor and Armin is currently helping them untangle extension cords so they can plug it in. Eren glances over at Levi and is shocked to the depths of his soul to see Levi and Jean sitting together, leaning over Jean’s phone and discussing something.

“You can’t just _say_ you want him to fuck you,” Levi says, frowning, as Eren sneakily shuffles up closer to hear what they’re talking about. “That leaves nothing to the imagination, it’s not enticing. Or do you want to come off as bossy? Which is its own game entirely.”

“No, I don’t wanna be bossy, but I don’t want him to think that I’m, like, shy about what I want,” Jean mumbles, grabbing his phone back from Levi. “Stop being so mean, I’m just trying to get fucked.”

“It’s like you’ve never sexted before, Jesus, this is pitiful,” Levi mutters. Eren is so confused by the prospect of Levi sexting (confused and jealous and definitely low-key turned on) that he zones out and doesn’t hear whatever Levi says next. When he regains the power of hearing, it looks like they’ve come to a consensus. “Just send that, it’s fine.”

Jean bites his lip and taps something on the screen. “Okay. Thanks.”

“You owe me now,” Levi says very seriously, then looks over his shoulder to see Eren. “Hey.”

“Are y’all okay?” Eren says, still sort of stuck on Levi and Jean peacefully interacting, which seems like something that should never happen.

“ _Y’all_?” Levi repeats, suppressing a smile.

“He dated a dude from Texas once,” Jean says. “Isn’t it annoying as fuck?”

“It is,” Levi says, but he’s smiling for real now, and Eren couldn't care less about Jean trying to make him look bad anymore.

“Anyway, we’re fine, Levi here was just helping me… text Marco,” Jean says, looking shifty. 

“Just send him those pics you took in Cabo, it’ll be fine,” Eren dismisses, going over to see what Hange and Armin are up to.

“Shit, you’re right,” Jean says, eyes wide, and starts scrolling through his photos.He’s the type of guy to send his friends his nudes for advice on whether they’re suitable or not, and for once, it’s coming in handy. “Thanks, Eren. I guess you’re good for something after all.”

“You’re welcome, hoe,” Eren mutters, grinning. He steps over some papers in a trail on the floor, and glances back to see that Levi is following. He smiles at him, and Levi walks past, his hand casually brushing over the small of Eren’s back. It’s a tiny gesture and Eren barely even feels the pressure, but it’s so strange and unexpected and _possessive_ that Eren feels electrified. Levi has never touched him just for the sake of touching him before.

“What is all this?” Levi asks, taking a sheaf of papers that Hange hands him. “Listen, Hans, when I gave you Eren’s address I didn’t actually mean for you to come over.”

“That makes no sense,” Hange says, taking their hair down from the messy bun it’s in and then putting it back up into an even messier bun. “You knew what you were doing, and here I am. Armin and I are setting up my new imaging system! Sit down, help out.”

“Jean was onto something with the disposable camera thing,” Armin says, looking a little disbelieving but also proud of Jean. “Those phone pictures that he got in Schaumburg aren’t bad, but they also look super fake. Ghosts show up better on film!”

“I can’t believe all ghosts are hipsters,” Eren mumbles.

“What we’ve discovered,” Hange says, taking the papers back from Levi even though he’s not done looking at them, “is an upcoming event of unprecedented proportions. You know how Earth goes through a bunch of ice ages all the time and it cycles? In a predictable way? I looked at a bunch of data— well, Moby did— and there’s a pattern, and it’s leading up to something. Something huge! We’re talking multiple spirits at one time. Maybe dozens, I can’t tell at this point how many. There’s hotspots all across the country, and there’s one in Chicago.”

“Shit,” Eren says, a little worried. “Is this a good thing or a bad thing?”

“It’s the _best thing_ ,” Hange says, waving their arms around. “We’ll learn so much! It’s in a few weeks. I’m so glad we spotted it when we did because the next one of this size isn’t going to happen for years. We’re developing a cage that might be able to stabilize the energy field enough to trap— okay, I shouldn’t call it a trap, but it’ll theoretically hold an apparition in a suspended state, making it, hmm, _mostly_ harmless. Then we’ll be able to study them from up close. And—”

“Slow down,” Levi interrupts, crossing his arms. “Lots of ghosts all at once. Got it. What does that have to do with the mess you’re making in Eren’s living room?”

“I live here, too,” Armin says mildly, then smiles at Eren, who’s back to his natural state of total confusion.

“I wanted company!” Hange says, grinning. “Running my ideas past Moby is no fun, he agrees too easily.”

“I’m sorry,” Moblit mumbles.

“And there’s some stuff I need to be talked out of, actually,” Hange says, serious all of a sudden. “Nuclear stuff. Help.”

“Don’t do it,” Levi says very half-heartedly, then gives up and goes to the kitchen to put the kettle on.

“Nuclear stuff?” Eren says, sitting down on the floor next to Hange. “I mean, that sounds dangerous as shit, but what’s that got to do with anything?”

Hange’s eyes flash and they sit forward. “You’ll need some context.”

“Okay?” Eren says, intimidated. “So give me context.”

Hange takes a sip of their lemon water, not breaking eye contact. “Okay. First of all, let’s talk about electromagnetism. As you already know, the electric field that…”

They then proceed to talk without pause for the next eleven minutes straight, not that Eren’s keeping track. He sort of understands what they’re saying about polarizability and Rayleigh scattering, but by the time they get to birefringence and quantum tunneling, he’s totally out and just nodding every few seconds and hoping he looks like he’s paying attention. He tunes back in while they’re talking about alpha decay as a power source, but only to notice that the room is suspiciously quiet except for Hange; it would appear that everyone else was unwilling to risk being the next audience member. He still doesn’t understand what “nuclear stuff” has to do with this — maybe he missed something — but he’s too scared to ask, because Hange already has a wild glint in their eye and he doesn’t want to make it worse.

It’s interesting, though, what they’re saying, even though Eren doesn’t know shit about physics, and he does his best to understand the rest as the speech slowly winds down. “I think I got it,” he says, smiling. “How can I help?”

“I noticed a van outside,” Hange says. “It looks very ghost hunt-y. Is it yours? I’ll have to borrow it.”

“Sure, I’ll ask the guys if— wait,” Eren says, frowning. “Are we not allowed to come along to the thing?”

Hange looks regretful. “Eren, I mean this in the kindest way possible, but you’re amateurs who don’t know anything about anything. It’d be too dangerous.”

“You had no problem with sending Levi and us out to sites before!” Eren protests. “We’re adults, we can handle ourselves. Like, even Jean knows not to throw himself blindly into the jaws of death, and he’s a total idiot otherwise.”

Hange considers it, taking their glasses off so they can clean them on their shirt. “I don’t know, Eren. I’m sure Levi will agree with me if you ask him. It’s not that I don’t trust you, and I definitely don’t doubt your enthusiasm, but it’s just a matter of safety.”

Eren huffs, trying not to look like a petulant child as he says, “Come on, Hange. You can’t dangle candy in front of a baby and expect it to— wait. Mixing metaphors. And not making myself sound very good.”

“No,” Hange agrees, smiling. “I’ll think about it, okay? I’ll probably say yes, but still, I need some time.”

“Isn’t it in a few weeks, though?” Eren points out. “Don’t take too long. Where’d everyone go?”

“I think Levi went for a smoke, but I don’t know about the rest,” Hange says, looking around. “I hope I didn’t scare them off!”

“I’m sure you didn’t,” Eren says, even though that’s exactly what happened. “Is Levi still staying with you, by the way?”

“‘By the way’ is a pointless linguistic filler and what you said wasn’t by the way at all,” Hange says, “but no, he went back to work. Right when things were getting interesting, too!”

“Did Farlan get to come along?” Eren asks, smiling to himself.

“Oh, yeah. He listened through my entire audiobook collection,” Hange says. “My partner got a big kick out of him.”

“How? He doesn’t have legs,” Eren says, snickering, and hops up to go investigate the mysterious disappearance of Jean, Armin, and Moblit. “Is there a big-ass game of hide and seek going on or something, what happened?”

Jean’s bedroom door is shut and Eren knows better than to try and check on him; Armin’s door is open, though, and Eren peeks through and sees Armin very insistently wrapping Moblit up in a blanket and putting him on the bed so he can get some rest. Eren is surprised by this development, but not that surprised, because Armin has always had a lot of sympathy for very stressed grad students, having once been one himself. Even still, it’s heartwarming, and Eren is glad at least someone is looking out for poor Moblit’s well-being.

Once Moblit is tucked in, Armin emerges from the room and startles when he sees Eren. “Eren! Hello! Is Hange done telling you the secrets of the universe?”

“Just about,” Eren says. “Have you seen Levi anywhere?”

“No,” Armin says, getting out his phone and half-hiding the screen from Eren as he unlocks it. “Excuse me a minute, I’ll be on the balcony.”

“Okay?” Eren says, stepping aside so Armin can go past. If Armin is going to the balcony, that must mean Levi isn’t there, which must mean he’s downstairs and outside. Eren is such a good detective! He puts on his shoes and heads for the door, humming to himself, and takes the stairs all the way down because he’s feeling energized. By the time he’s at the bottom, though, he’s full of regrets and his legs are tired, but he sees Levi through the front doors and it’s worth it.

Eren comes out of the building just as Levi’s finishing his cigarette, and he looks so peaceful as he checks his phone and grinds the stub out with his heel that Eren almost feels bad about disturbing him. But Levi hears the doors opening and turns around before Eren can even say anything, so the point is moot. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, totally fine!” Eren says, a little out of breath and smiling. “I just didn’t know where you went.”

“I would have said something, but Hange had you in their clutches, so I couldn’t.” Levi puts his phone away and looks up at him. “What do you think of this whole massive ghost event thing?”

“Mostly I’m pissed that Hange doesn’t want to let us come along,” Eren says. “Oh, by the way, Hange doesn’t want to let us come along.”

Levi makes a dismissive sound. “If you want to be there, I’ll convince them. It won’t take much.”

Eren smiles, weirdly giddy that Levi is so ready to stand up for him. “Okay. Thanks. I think it’ll be fun!”

“It’ll just be more of the same, Eren. When did they say it was?”

Eren bites his lip, trying to remember. “In a few weeks? I didn’t hear an exact date. I think they were telling Armin all about it before, though, so you can probably ask him if you don’t want the full lecture from Hange.”

Levi hums thoughtfully, kicking the cigarette stub off the sidewalk. “I might head out.”

Eren’s face falls. “What? Why? If you want more peace and quiet, I can probably kick Jean out, and I think Moblit’s asleep, and—”

“Relax,” Levi interrupts, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “I have papers to grade. Finals are soon. You’ll probably see me again this week, anyway.”

“Oh,” Eren says, blushing. “Okay. I keep forgetting you have a real job.”

“That makes one of us,” Levi says. “Don’t let Hange walk all over you, by the way, feel free to tell them to shut up anytime.”

“Thanks,” Eren says, then steps closer to him. He wishes that he and Levi could kiss without it having to be a goodbye (even if temporary), or without being rushed for fear of being near-immediately interrupted by their friends. He also wishes he knew what it meant when they kiss, if it means anything at all. It sure feels like it does, but Levi’s such an enigma. He circles his fingers around Levi’s wrist and draws him close, but Levi is the one who makes the first actual move, leaning up and pressing their lips together.

He’s pulling back too soon, though, but Eren is still holding his wrist, so he draws Levi back in for another kiss. Levi is smiling into it this time, evidently appreciating Eren getting a little bolder, and nips his lower lip gently before stepping back and slipping his wrist free. “See you around.”

“We live on opposite ends of Chicago,” Eren points out, tongue absently running over where Levi had just bitten. “We won’t exactly run into each other in Walmart.”

“You never know,” Levi says. “Text me.”

“Will you actually text me back this time?” Eren says, smiling. “Nah, don’t answer that, I know you won’t. Have fun at work.”

Levi rolls his eyes and nods at Eren, then gets out his keys and heads for his Prius. Eren watches him go, hoping he’s not ogling him too obviously, but there’s a lot to ogle, so he can hardly be blamed. Levi gets into the car and Eren waves at him, smiling brightly, and Levi very half-heartedly waves back before driving off.

Eren takes the elevator back up and smiles all the way, feeling the imprint of Levi’s lips on his own.

“What are you smiling about? We have work to do,” Hange says accusingly the second Eren walks back in. “And everyone abandoned me.”

“No, they didn’t! See, I came back,” Eren soothes, going into the living room. They’ve pinned up massive print-outs of a spreadsheet reminiscent of the one Armin and Levi had made back in the day, except with a lot more data and some confusing graphs. “What’s this?”

“It’s proof,” Hange says, getting a pen out of the front pocket of their shirt. Today, they’re wearing a starched button-up and distressed jeans that may or may not have come from Forever 21. “Proof of the _event_.”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure we all believe you,” Eren says, but comes over to check it out anyway. “So… are you going to tell me what any of this means?”

“I’m getting the sense you don’t actually care,” Hange says with an indignant sniff. “But I really want to tell you, so I’m going to. I’ve lined up analyses of fluctuations in the electromagnetic field with patterns of radiation, both man-made and natural, and I’ve used the data you and Levi and some of my other friends have provided to see if there are any overlaps. I also researched mythology, and found some really interesting stories from Babylon about the undead, mass grave openings, and so on. I did my best to give those stories specific dates, and I found that they lined up with the square root of apples vs. oranges, and when you think about the relative length of a giraffe’s neck to the rest of its body, you start to notice a lot of really interesting things, like whether or not Hatsune Miku can be trusted. I think not.”

Eren nods, trying to look engaged. He thinks longingly of his physics classes back in the day, and wishes he’d paid more attention so he could have something intelligent to say about all this.

Hange sighs, disappointed. “Never mind, Eren, you’re not listening. Where’s Armin? He’ll be a better sounding-board.”

“Hey,” Eren says, a little offended. “I was listening the whole time. Uh. Radiation, data, Babylon…”

“I, personally, have never trusted Hatsune Miku,” Armin says, emerging from the kitchen. “Sorry, Hange, I was making sure Moblit was okay.”

Hange, taken aback, blinks at him. “Moby? He’s fine.”

“He’s taking a nap, is what he is,” Armin says, and directs his trademark stern look at Hange. Hange actually looks a little guilty. “I’ll wake him up when we’re all ready to have dinner.”

“What does the freaky hologram girl have to do with this?” Eren asks, pretty sure he’s missed something. 

“Hange was testing you to see if you were listening, and you failed,” Armin explains. “Which is a shame, because they’ve clearly got a lot of interesting things to say!”

“I’m doing my best,” Eren says defensively and scoots over to the corner of the couch to pout.

As Hange waves Armin over and resumes their explanations, Jean’s bedroom door opens and he emerges, looking wild-eyed and frazzled. “Red alert, everyone, Marco’s coming over, so everyone has to be on their best behavior,” he shouts.

“Jesus,” Eren says, frowning up at him. “The fuck is wrong with you? He’s been here before. Like, billions of times. What’s different?”

Jean flushes red, then goes into the kitchen and starts slamming cabinet doors. “Nothing! Leave me alone!”

“He’s going to say the L-word,” Armin stage-whispers to Eren, and Eren gasps.

“Librarian? Lizard? _Legume?_ Damn, Jean, things are getting pretty hot and heavy, huh?” he grins. “That’s fucking disgusting, though. Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Jean mumbles, then comes out of the kitchen with a Capri Sun. 

“Was it the sexting that won you over?” Eren teases. “Were his nudes just that good?”

“Stop it,” Jean huffs, throwing the wrapper of his Capri Sun straw at Eren and missing. “I’m sensitive about this, shut up.”

“Sorry, what’s going on?” Hange says, looking very thoroughly bored. “We were talking about things that actually matter a second ago, and now this.”

“Yes, you’re right, sorry,” Armin says, quickly turning back to them. “This situation will probably resolve itself, anyway.”

They resume their conversation, and Eren points accusingly at Jean, who plops down on the opposite end of the couch. “You’re supposed to keep me updated on the status of your gross relationship. Why is Armin getting all the gossip before I do?”

“I don’t tell him anything, either,” Jean says defensively. “He figures it out for himself. He’s sneaky.”

“I can be sneaky,” Eren says, frowning. “Or you could just tell me yourself. I didn’t know you and Marco were so serious.”

“Neither did I,” Jean says, looking absolutely miserable. “But I’m so into him and last week he brought me _waffles_. I woke up and _Marco_ was here with _waffles_.”

“Shit,” Eren says. “I’m in love with him, too, damn. Or maybe I’m just in love with the waffles.”

“I thought I was just in love with the waffles, too, but,” Jean says, then makes a distressed noise and sips his Capri Sun, flinging his free arm over his eyes. “Ugh. I’m so nervous. I just jerked off and it didn’t make me any less nervous.”

“Why are you so nasty,” Eren says, hitting him with a pillow. “I don’t need to hear about that, you disgusting boy.”

“You know what I don’t need,” Jean says, removing his arm from in front of his eyes, “is you and Levi making out in front of me, but that doesn’t stop you, does it!”

Eren sputters, going red. “That was, like, one time!”

“One time too many,” Jean retorts. “Besides, I’m a big deal now. You have to respect me.”

“Why are you a big deal?” Eren says, back to being utterly unimpressed. “You’re wearing Batman sweatpants designed for middle schoolers, you don’t scare me.”

“I invented the disposable camera,” Jean says, sucking on his Capri Sun.

“No, you did not,” Eren says.

“Yes, I did!” Jean insists. “From start to finish, it was my idea.”

Eren rolls his eyes and sticks out his leg to kick Jean. “You thought of using it to take pictures of ghosts. There’s a difference between that and inventing it.”

“There’s literally no difference,” Jean says, glaring at Eren. “I’m important. Admit it.”

“Sorry, I don’t like to tell lies,” Eren says and sticks his tongue out at Jean.

Jean turns his Capri Sun around and squeezes the pouch so some juice shoots out at Eren. Eren squawks and grabs one of Armin’s throw pillows from behind him to smack Jean with, but Jean dodges and nearly falls off the couch.

Jean’s legs are longer, but Eren is more determined to kick his ass, so it doesn’t take long until they’re kicking each other again, and Jean is about to bite Eren’s forearm to get him to let him out of a mild headlock when the door opens and Marco walks in.

“Hello,” Marco says very mildly. “Does anyone want bagels?”

“Marco!” Jean says, face going bright red immediately, and shoves Eren off of him. Eren yelps and topples to the floor. “Hi, yes, I would lo— really like a bagel so much, thank you.”

As Jean gets off the couch to walk over to Marco, Eren tries to grab him by the ankles and drag him down, but fails. He shoots Jean a quick thumbs-up, though, when Jean looks at him, and Jean makes a horrible little face and hurries over to take the bagels from Marco.

“Marco, um, this is Hange, who is… I forgot who you are, I’m sorry,” Jean says, hooking his arm through Marco’s. He doesn’t look apologetic at all.

Hange laughs, waving at Marco. “I’m a friend of a friend! Just squatting here to set up my equipment.”

“Neat,” Marco says, smiling. “I’ll be quiet, I promise! Don’t mind me.”

“I mind you very much,” Jean says, then looks like he regrets saying it, because he’s a fool who doesn’t know how to talk to people. Marco kisses him for his efforts anyway, and Eren looks away, idly wondering if he and Levi will ever get to this level of domesticity. He doubts it, though. They have yet to have any sort of talk about what they are, and it might just be that Levi is lonely and wants someone to smooch so long ghost hunting nights go by faster.

He frowns slightly and pushes that thought away. He’s been having little thoughts like that a lot lately, and it’s a concerning trend. “Hange, can I help with anything?”

“Probably not,” Hange says, shrugging. “But thank you. Did the nice young man say something about bagels?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Eren says. “Do you want a bagel?”

“What? No, I was just asking,” Hange says, then returns to their work.

Eren stares into the distance for a second. He can see why Hange and Levi are such good friends. He wants a bagel, but he also thinks Jean and Marco are making out in the kitchen, so he’s not about to walk in on that. But Marco emerges from the kitchen, looking friendly and holding bagels, which only enhances the friendliness. Jean is trailing behind him, and he looks weird and anxious. 

“Would you like a bagel?” Marco offers. “I should have handed them out as soon as I got here, sorry, Jean distracted me.”

“Uh, sure,” Eren says and takes a bagel. It’s an everything bagel, and he munches on it happily, much to the disgust of Armin, who would rather die than eat an untoasted bagel without any spreads on it.

“You know what?” Hange says, looking around the room. “I keep hearing buzz about the Xbox Kinect and how it’s good at tracking spirits which might not have physical manifestations. Do you have one of those? You should get one if you don’t, it might be very useful.”

Eren, Jean, and Armin immediately begin pointing to things around the living room, such as the hole in the window sealed by duct tape, the mismatched lightbulbs in the overhead light, the overall state of the couch, and some rather ominous cracks in the wall by the door. This continues for some time, until Hange rolls their eyes and says, “I get it, I get it.”

“I mean, we would love to have a Kinect, I’m sure,” Eren says. “Like, Jean would probably be really into that game, what’s it called? With the freaky CG animals from the jungle. And you capture them and train them to be your pet. And you have an annoying bee tiger thing that follows you around and gives you tips on what to do?”

“It’s called Kinectimals and it’s not like that at all,” Jean mumbles, glowering at Eren.

Eren raises his eyebrows mischievously at Jean and continues eating his bagel. “Anyway, Hange, do we look like we can afford an Xbox Kinect?”

“I said I get it!” Hange sighs, then holds out a hand for Marco’s bag of bagels. He meekly hands it to them, and they ransack the bag until they find a poppyseed one. “It was just an idea, anyway. I’d say we have enough equipment as it is.”

“Probably,” Eren says, looking over the mountain of equipment Hange unnecessarily brought with them. “Do you… want any toppings for your bagel?”

“What?” Hange says. Their bagel is half-eaten already.

“Never mind,” Eren says and grins at them, glad to have found a kindred spirit. “Can I help with anything?”

“I’ll probably leave soon, actually,” they say, looking around. “Where’s Moby?”

“Asleep,” Armin says. “I don’t want to wake him up. Did you come here in the same car?”

“I can probably take a taxi home,” Hange says dubiously. “What do you mean he’s asleep?”

“I told you about this before,” Armin reminds. “You overwork him, you know. I met him, like, an hour ago and I can already tell.”

“Everybody always thinks I overwork him!” Hange says defensively. “But he takes on all those extra hours himself, he loves it! I always offer him time off and he always says no, he’s like a house-elf. You can ask him if that’s true, he’ll tell you.”

Armin, if anything, looks like he respects Moblit even more for this and backs off. “Well, either way, I don't want to wake him up.”

“That’s fine,” Hange says. “Who’s the kissing boy, by the way?”

“No one’s kissing anyone!” Jean says, pulling away from enthusiastically kissing Marco with an unpleasant suction noise and blushing. “Marco has never kissed anyone, ever.”

“Really,” Marco says with a small smile. “Then how do you explain… this?” He leans in and kisses Jean, and even though it’s gross as fuck and Eren feels that same twinge of domesticity envy he’d felt earlier, he has to admit that was pretty smooth.

Jean squawks against Marco’s mouth. “I love you,” he blurts out, and Eren groans and smacks himself in the face. So much for subtle. He’d been really rooting for Jean, too.

But Marco doesn’t seem deterred. In fact, he only seems encouraged, and his face lights up all soft and he gently nuzzles his nose against Jean’s. “I love you, too,” he replies, smiling.

“Awwwwww,” Armin and Hange both say, even though Hange has just entered into this situation and has no context. Eren has no doubt that Hange wouldn’t be saying ‘aww’ if they knew what a disgusting boy Jean really was.

“No PDA in the living room,” Eren says sternly, and Marco breaks the kiss, resting his head on top of Jean’s. Jean is beet red, but he looks happy. Happiness looks strange on Jean’s face, but at this rate, Eren is sure he’ll be seeing it a lot more. 

“So you know how my nickname for Moby is Moby?” Hange says to Armin. “If I use that same system for you, your nickname would be Army.”

Armin purses his lips. “I’m not sure I like that,” he says. “But okay.”

Eren’s phone buzzes, and he gets it out of his pocket. There’s a text from Levi, and he unlocks his phone to see that all it is is Levi telling him he got home safely. He looks at it for a moment, then scrolls through the very sparse texts they’ve exchanged up until this point with a little smile on his face. It’s impossible to tell anything about who they are and what’s happened to them from these copy-pasted addresses and single-word messages. Eren almost feels like he’s keeping a secret from himself, and he’s still smiling as he puts his phone away and looks up to confirm his friends haven’t killed each other yet.

To his surprise, things seem to be wrapping up. Hange and Armin are discussing what to do with all of the equipment Hange had brought over, and the consensus seems to be that they’ll take about half of it back with them and the rest can stay here for Armin to fiddle with. Jean and Marco have vanished, presumably into Jean’s room, and Eren can’t decide if this is a change for the better or for the worse. Envy tugs at him yet again, making him frown as he goes over to help Hange put things back into boxes. He’d thought about this for about half a second earlier, whether Levi will stick around after all this is over, and finds himself wishing painfully that he and Levi could have met under normal circumstances, like Jean and Marco, just two people interested in each other and giving it a try. That way, he’d know. 

He shakes his head clear of thoughts like that as he, Armin, and Hange carry the equipment back down to Hange’s car. After all, even if Levi does just want some company to make this project less lonely, Eren still gets to kiss him and spend time with him. And that’s enough. Isn’t it? 

Once he’s back up in his room (and has headphones in blasting music to drown out any potential noise from Jean’s room), he opens up his texts with Levi and scrolls through again. They’re sparse, sure, and mostly from Eren without replies, but that’s not because Levi isn’t interested in Eren, he’s just… concise. Eren bites his lip as he stares down at the messages, feeling a twinge of guilt for thinking about Levi like this. Levi is a good person, and if he’s only using Eren, he’ll let him down gently when it’s all over. Eren resolves not to think about it further and just live in the moment.

This doesn’t last long, of course, but he does succeed in keeping from worrying about it every waking second, at least. He has Armin and Jean to keep him company with their shenanigans, and he has work, of course. He even takes some extra shifts so he has some more spending money (and date money, his brain unhelpfully supplies every time that direct deposit hits). After he’s done at the mall, he comes home, they all go over Hange’s latest data that they sent over and maybe watch a movie until it’s bedtime. It’s a decent routine to maintain while they all wait for the big event.

As is Levi’s custom, however, he shakes up that routine when he shows up unannounced to Eren’s work.

Eren is playing a mobile version of pinball that inexplicably involves Mario characters, so he’s not really demonstrating his status as strong contender for employee of the month at the moment when someone places their hands on the top of the information counter and clears their throat.

“Welcome to Church Street Plaza,” Eren mumbles on instinct, and since he’s about to go on break, he doesn’t look up. “How can I help you.”

“I was looking for the wifi password,” Levi says haltingly, sounding confused, and Eren snaps his head up the second he hears Levi’s voice, face lighting up with a smile.

“Levi! I was just about to take my lunch break,” he says, standing and pushing his chair in. Levi looks tired, but pleased to see him, unless that’s wishful thinking. “Perfect timing. There’s a Corner Bakery on the second floor, and I get a discount ‘cause I’m a mall employee! So—” Eren stops, biting his lip slightly. “Unless you… came here for the mall, in which case I’d be happy to direct you wherever you’re interested in going.”

Levi clearly barely restrains himself from rolling his eyes. “I came to bring you these,” he says, lifting a small collection of papers and pamphlets in his arms. “From Hange.”

“Oh,” Eren says. Levi is here, once again, for ghost reasons. Typical. “So is that a no on Corner Bakery?”

“Why would I say no to Corner Bakery?” Levi says, and that’s a fair point, so Eren puts a ‘back in 15’ sign on his desk and gets his jacket. 

“How’d you find me, anyway?” Eren asks, grinning down at him as they walk. “Was it a thrilling investigation involving hacking and intrigue?”

“There aren’t that many malls in Evanston,” Levi says, glancing up at Eren in return and raising an eyebrow. “No hacking necessary.” 

Eren feels a little foolish. “Ah.”

“And also I asked Armin when you’d be working,” Levi adds, and Eren feels better. Although he doesn’t know why Levi bothered going to the trouble; these files might be important, sure, but Hange could definitely have just emailed them over, not had Levi go out of his way to act as courier and deliver them in person.

“The wifi password, for the record, is just evanston17, no caps,” Eren tells him as they go into the Corner Bakery and head up to the counter. “But it drops out if you get too far from the routers. I’m, like, right in a dead zone.”

“Sounds frustrating,” Levi murmurs, glancing over a menu. Eren immediately feels self-conscious about rambling. Levi probably doesn’t want to know anything at all about the intricacies of working at the Church Street Plaza. He’s here to tell Eren all about Hange’s latest discoveries and the status of the project in general, and then they’ll see each other at the big ghost hunt, and that’ll be it. “—Eren?”

Eren blinks, startled. He hadn’t heard Levi asking him anything. “What? Sorry.”

“What are you having, and also, are you okay?” Levi says, a little hesitantly. “You seem… sleep-deprived.”

“Anaheim panini, and yeah, I’m peachy,” Eren says, even more startled. “Do I? I might be. That’s, like, been a given ever since I started college. And I’ve been working more lately, so.”

“Armin mentioned, yeah,” Levi murmurs. “Any particular reason for that? I doubt you’ve suddenly discovered a passion for answering questions about where Build-A-Bear is.”

Eren snorts, shaking his head. “I don’t have anything better to do, and since we’re not making videos as regularly, I have more time. And the extra cash is nice.”

Levi hums in assent and looks down at the menu again. Eren realizes with an unpleasant jolt that this is Levi’s attempt at small talk so he doesn’t just have to go straight to the ghosts. He’s trying to be _polite_. Probably so Eren doesn’t catch on to the fact that he doesn’t care about the banalities of Eren’s day-to-day existence. 

Eren chastises himself for melodrama immediately, sneaking a glance at Levi. Surely if Levi were here only for a cursory visit, he’d look more bored, more impatient. Then again, Levi’s face is very difficult to read, and he just about always looks bored. Besides, things had very obviously been fine between them even a week ago, Levi pressing casual kisses to Eren’s mouth to say hello or goodbye and smiling at him sometimes, asking Eren about how his friends are doing. Eren hasn’t had all these doubts until recently, and he fervently wishes they’d leave him alone, especially since he’s at least mostly sure they’re irrational.

They order their food and go over to sit in a booth. “So what have we here, then?” Eren asks, reaching for the documents Levi had brought with him.

“Ah,” Levi says, making a face. “Safety information.”

Eren stares. “You’re not serious.” He opens one of the booklets and flips through. It looks like a lab safety manual, the kind that gets handed out to 7th graders in basic biology. “Does Hange know we’ve done this before?”

“Look, it was difficult enough for me to convince them to let you come along,” Levi sighs. “I figured you’d be able to tolerate some safety fliers and I didn’t need to push them on anything else.”

“No, it’s fine, thank you,” Eren assures him, scanning through the selection. “These are… really thorough.”

Levi nods, resting his elbow on the table and his chin in his palm. “I talked them out of including the more condescending ones.”

“Wow,” Eren mumbles. There are cute little diagrams — which are reminiscent of IKEA furniture assembly manuals — on how to avoid ghosts. “Did they design these themselves?”

“I think so,” Levi says, peering over to see. His hair is messier today than Eren’s ever seen it, and when Levi leans back again, Eren can’t stop himself from reaching out and smoothing down a stray piece of hair by his ear. Levi goes visibly pink but doesn’t push his hand away. “Some of them are probably from the internet, too.” 

“Probably,” Eren agrees, still not moving his hand. At this point, it’s just kind of cradling the side of Levi’s head, fingers slipping through Levi’s hair. Levi is looking at him, and he’s tilting his head to lean into the touch when a waiter comes with their food and Eren, flushing, pulls his hand back quickly. He just hopes he hasn’t made Levi uncomfortable, because Levi is just as red as he is and Eren doesn’t know what that means.

“Do you have to go soon?” Levi asks after they’ve been eating in companionable silence for a while. “Your desk said 15 minutes.”

“Oh, no way,” Eren scoffs. “I basically set my own schedule here. King of the castle, employee of the month, top of the food chain, that’s me.”

Levi raises an eyebrow. “Is that actually true?”

“Um.” Eren glances away, sheepish but smiling. “No. I do have to go soon, but not that soon, it’s okay.”

“Top of the food chain,” Levi repeats, laughing very quietly to himself. “King of Church Street Plaza.”

“I really am on the employee of the month track,” Eren says despairingly.

Levi laughs again, shaking his head. “You’re an inspiration to us all.”

Eren hums, looking at him with undisguised adoration, and takes a sip of his iced tea. “Isn’t your semester ending soon?”

“Final exam is Wednesday after next,” Levi nods. “I have the utmost confidence in my students that they’ll all do well, but just in case, I’m planning to curve the grade.”

“Nice of you,” Eren grins, then has a thought and goes faintly pink. “Is there a, uh, summer term? I don’t know how semester schools work.”

“Some people offer classes in the summer, yes,” Levi says.

Eren deflates slightly. “Oh. Do you?”

“No,” Levi says. Eren perks up again. “I mean, my class doesn’t satisfy any general requirements, so there’d be no need for me to do it over the summer. I might lead a workshop or two, but other than that… no summer plans.” He pauses, giving Eren a strange, searching look. “Why do you ask?”

“Just curious,” Eren says, busying himself with his panini and avoiding thoughts of spending the summer with Levi, going downtown together on warm days, having more sleepovers, seeing Levi in whatever his summer equivalent of a turtleneck is. 

“I’m sure I’ll see you around,” Levi murmurs, sounding extremely casual but looking anything but. In fact, he looks rather nervous, and Eren has a moment of staggering clarity where he realizes that Levi might actually want to spend time with him and all his worrying has been in vain. 

“Yeah,” Eren says, face starting to light up with a broad, dopey smile. “I’m sure you will.”

Levi looks very interested in whatever the side of his drink cup says on it all of a sudden, but the tips of his ears are pink. Eren wants to kiss them. He glances away after a moment, though, because he knows Levi doesn’t like to be stared at, which is a damn shame.

When Eren can’t resist and looks at Levi again, Levi is smiling, and Eren starts smiling, too. “What?”

Levi shakes his head, smile only growing. “It’s nothing.”

“No, tell me,” Eren insists, pressing his foot against Levi’s under the table.

Levi sighs, shrugging one shoulder. “Just remembering how you actually tried to trick me into talking to you by pretending you wanted to discuss Aimee Bender.”

“Hey,” Eren huffs, going red. “What else was I meant to do, huh? And it _worked_! I got a good book out of it, and I got— anyway, it worked out great.”

Levi looks at him, and unless Eren is very much mistaken, his expression is fond. He hesitates, then sits up, seemingly about to say something, but then the intercom crackles and a voice Eren knows is deceptively neutral says, “Requesting assistance at first floor information hub.”

Eren swears and jumps up, cramming the last bit of his panini into his mouth. “That’s my cue,” he says, covering his mouth so Levi doesn’t get too horrified by his lack of manners. “Thanks for bringing these over, uh, you can stop by my desk on your way out if you want?”

“Okay,” Levi says, stacking the papers neatly and handing them to Eren. “Any particular mall attractions I should check out?”

“Um,” Eren says, grabbing the papers. He scrunches up his nose in thought, then picks up his iced tea and takes a final sip. “The art store. And J. Crew has decent turtlenecks. Both of those are kinda… by Macy’s? That way? North side of the building, um, there’s a bunch of plants over there that are pretty noticeable, that’s the landmark I always use.”

“You’re clearly very skilled at your job,” Levi murmurs, and Eren scowls at him.

“It’s easier when I have a specific question to answer, don’t doubt me,” Eren huffs. Before he can think about it too much, he leans down, touches Levi’s cheek with his free hand, and kisses him swiftly on the mouth. Levi kisses back even though the kiss is brief, and there’s a small smile on his lips when Eren pulls away. “See you around?”

Levi nods. “See you.”

Eren grins at him, then dashes out of the cafe and down the escalator to return to his desk. He feels like a weight has been lifted off of him with the dismissal of his Levi-related paranoia; he might not know exactly what he is to Levi, or what Levi is to him, or what he _wants_ to be to Levi and vice versa, but he’s fairly confident that Levi won’t just drop him when all of this is over. 

Levi doesn’t stop by the desk on his way out, which is fine, as Eren now has plenty of mildly condescending and very silly safety materials to peruse for the rest of his shift. When he’s done with work, he heads straight home and presents the documents to Jean and Armin, who then proceed to spend the next two hours straight quoting choice lines such as “If you see a cute ghost, do _not_ try to kiss it! Ghosts are very bad kissers because they’re made entirely out of energy — ouch!” and “Ghosts are scary. But you know what’s scarier? Climate change” at each other. 

Eren, meanwhile, sends a video of all of this to Levi — who, true to form, sees the message but doesn’t reply — and checks the wall calendar in the kitchen to see how long until the event itself. Someone, likely Jean, who has a surprising amount of artistic talent considering he once spent an entire afternoon at the Art Institute saying “Art? More like fart” in response to every painting, has drawn a little ghost reminiscent of the Bust Ghosters logo (which he’d also designed) doing a series of dances in the entire week leading up to it.

Eren bites his lip as he looks at the date, feeling optimistic and excited for the first time in a while, now that he’s no longer worried Levi will ditch him.

Ten days left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title is … well yall can tell what it’s from im sure. fun fact i’ve never seen that movie. i know this chapter was a little slow but the next one gets very exciting and then the one after that is the last one!! wow!! i hope you’re enjoying it and have been enjoying it, please let me know what you’re thinking of it in reviews etc!! LOL (lots of love) home stretch we're almost done -- see u next week for the penultimate chapter! OH and friendly reminder that the rating being M (honestly i might bump it up to E???) only applies to chapter 12 (the last one) — u can skip most of it if u don't want to read any seks huhuhu….. wow i can't believe we're almost done, it's been a little over a month since i posted the first few chapters, wrow!!! thank you so much for reading if you've stayed with this story, i really sincerely and deeply appreciate every single one of you!!


	11. Believe It or Not

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Let’s go bust some ghosters, huh?”
> 
> New ghostly faces, old familiar faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wrow putting the notes at the beginning of the chapter instead of the end, how exciting!! (its bc this chapter is technically the end of the plot of bust ghosters and i didnt want to disrupt the flow... wrow) also... thats right.. this is the penultimate chapter :((( i'm so sad it's almost over!! but this has been an amazing journey and i loved writing it and i love every single one of you for reading it!! and this is a really dramatic one lol please enjoy. ALSO: im bumping the rating up to E when i post chapter 12, and if ur uncomfortable w reading sex lol, skip to p much the end of chapter 12. hehe. and ALSO, if you want to see some truly dope ghost-mythbusters content, [heres some amazing and incredible art](http://steve-rogers.tumblr.com/post/162028447982/want-something-more-beautiful-than-god-and-twice) my girlfriend did of them!!!!! anyway thank you so much for reading, please leave a review with what you thought or hit me up on tumblr!! big love!!

Levi calls him the night before the so-called event. Eren has just gotten off work and he’s crabby as hell, but just seeing Levi’s name pop up on his screen makes him feel lighter. He pauses the episode of Guy’s Grocery Games he’s watching and picks up, all of a sudden relating to giggly teenage girls who get all blushy and useless when their crush calls. “Helloooo,” he says, rolling over on his bed to sit up. 

“Hello,” Levi says, then nothing else.

Eren bites his lip, smiling. “Hi. What’s up?”

Some rustling on the other end of the line. “Finishing up the answer key for the final exam.”

“Exciting,” Eren says. “I remember exams. I’m glad I don’t have to do them anymore. Anyway, why’d you call?”

“If you’re busy, we don’t have to talk.”

“I’m not busy,” Eren assures, pulling his legs up under himself. “I was just watching this really stupid cooking show.”

“Yeah? I hope you’re not talking about Cutthroat Kitchen,” Levi says. 

“No, I love Cutthroat,” Eren hums. “Alton is great. He reminds me of you, actually.”

“That’s so kind of you,” Levi says. “How are you feeling about tomorrow?”

Eren rolls over onto his stomach, sighing. “I don’t know. Hange tried to spook me with all their _dangerous_ talk, but you said it’ll be the same as it always is, so…”

“It’ll probably be something in between. I don’t think you have anything to be afraid of.” Levi pauses. “I mean, I’ve been in a few dangerous situations involving ghosts, but, as you can see, I’m still around.”

“Or maybe you’re just really good at pretending to still be alive,” Eren grins. “I mean, I did think you were a ghost when we first met.”

“I remember, yes.”

“What do you mean ‘dangerous,’ though?” Eren asks. “You’ve mentioned that a few times and, like, they’re just glowing light things, how much damage can they do?”

“Well… mostly it just feels like suffocation,” Levi says. “And then you’re really nauseous after. I’ve seen them break windows before, throw furniture around. It’s not like they mean to cause any harm, there’s just a lot of power being released, and not all of them are as lucky as Farlan and can control their actions.”

“Huh,” Eren says. “None of this makes any fucking sense to me, but I’ll keep that in mind and not wear any tight collars just to be safe. Or a turtleneck.”

He can practically hear Levi rolling his eyes. “Whatever. Good night, Eren.”

“Wait, hang on,” Eren says, sitting up quickly. “How are _you_ feeling about it?”

Levi sighs, the phone crackling against Eren’s ear. “Not that optimistic. Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” Eren says. “Honestly, no disrespect to Hange, but I don’t know if I think it’ll be a huge-ass deal like they’re saying it will be.”

“Mm. I don’t think so, either. I mean, I’ve never seen more than one at a time.”

“Could be cool, though,” Eren says, then flops down onto his back, staring at the ceiling. “And if they’ve got traps, then…”

“Yeah,” Levi murmurs. “It all sounds a little _Ghostbusters_ to me, but—”

“I think you’ve just got _Ghostbusters_ on the brain,” Eren chuckles. 

“Hmm. Maybe.”

“Cute,” Eren smiles. “It’s a good movie, I know. Good enough for us to sort of name our webseries after it.”

Levi snorts. “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I just wanted to… check that you’re not getting cold feet or anything.”

“Me?” Eren says, offended. “Never! Unless you’re implying that you don’t want to do it anymore.”

“No, I definitely do. But I don’t want to be there alone.”

Eren feels warm. “You won’t be. Are we all going together, do you want me to pick you up?” 

“You can if you want. Hange is going on their own, so I don’t have to chaperone them. For once.”

“Okay, then I’ll pick you up,” Eren smiles. “Thanks for calling.” It’s a little stupid, but he almost thinks Levi called him just to hear his voice. He can’t believe he’d thought Levi wasn’t interested in continuing to see him; it seems so stupid now.

“Thanks for answering,” Levi says. “See you tomorrow.”

“See you,” Eren agrees, and Levi hangs up. Eren presses play on his episode again and wonders if that had really happened or if he’d imagined it. He hasn’t felt this giddy about someone in a long time. He should probably feel more excited about the big ghost event tomorrow, honestly, but he can’t help it. All he can hope for is that Levi feels the same, and he’s starting to be pretty sure that he does.

He — and Jean and Armin, to Eren’s dismay — picks Levi up at six the next day. Levi is mildly surprised at the sight of the others in the van and Armin at the wheel, but gets in the back to sit with Eren. “Hello, everyone.”

“Hello!” Armin says. “We’re listening to ‘80s tunes. Any requests?”

“No,” Levi says, buckling up. “I like to pretend the ‘80s didn’t happen.”

“Weren’t you _born_ in the ‘80s?” Jean accuses.

Levi shrugs. “Exactly.”

“Ouch,” Jean says. 

Eren smiles slightly down at Levi. “Hi. You look good.”

“I look _the same_ ,” Levi says, crossing his arms, and Eren only smiles more.

“You excited?” Eren murmurs, swaying a little with the van’s movements. 

Levi shrugs. “About as much as I always am.”

“So… no,” Eren says, laughing. “Fair enough. You like Total Eclipse of the Heart? Armin, put on Total Eclipse of the Heart!”

“We’re listening to Erasure right now,” Jean huffs, but takes Armin’s phone and queues up the song. “Is Hange meeting us there, by the way?”

“Yeah, they’re bringing all sorts of shit,” Levi replies, crossing his legs with one foot on top of the opposite knee. “They’ll probably be pretty busy with that and leave us alone, though. We’re just the manpower.”

“Okay,” Eren says, considering draping his arm over the back of the seat like a shitty guy on a date. “Hey, why didn’t the ghosts think about how the Congress Plaza is a really cliché place for a big haunting?”

“I’ll have Hange pass on the message,” Levi says.

“Thanks,” Eren grins, then shuts up so he can pay attention to Bonnie Tyler being melodramatic from the van’s speakers.

Once the song is over and everyone has calmed down again, Levi looks at his phone. “Oh. Hange’s running late.”

“Ah!” Armin says. He looks weirdly anxious, like, more than usual. “Let’s stop and eat somewhere, then. It’s not dusk yet anyway.”

Levi nods slightly, texting Hange back. “And it’s fine if we get there after them. They’ll have a lot of equipment to set up.”

“And,” Armin says, fidgeting, “I think they mentioned that they’ve asked some of their— well, another team from somewhere else to come in and work on it with them?”

Levi frowns. “Really? They didn’t tell me anything like that.”

“I might have misheard,” Armin says quickly. He’s biting his lip and his hands are tight on the wheel, and Eren is a little worried about him. “But that’s the gist I got. I guess we’ll see.”

“I guess so,” Levi says slowly, and puts his phone down. 

“Any food preferences?” Armin asks, voice high. “How about I treat everyone to Panera?”

“Aw, Armin,” Jean says, reaching out to pat his shoulder. “We’ll protect you from the ghosts, bud. Don’t worry.”

Armin exhales quickly and shakes Jean’s touch off. “I’m not… never mind. Panera?”

“Sure,” Jean says, patting his shoulder again. “Thanks, pal.”

“Stop calling me weird substitutes for ‘friend,’” Armin mutters, driving to Panera. “I’m totally fine.”

“If you say so, buckaroo,” Jean shrugs, leaning back in his chair. 

Eren sends an apologetic glance Levi’s way, because his friends are pretty damn embarrassing, but Levi is looking up at the tiny disco ball on the ceiling of the van and not paying attention.

Once they get to Panera and they’ve ordered their panini (Jean) and grapefruit soda (Levi), Armin is looking a little calmer, but he’s still holding his phone like a lifeline and checking it every few seconds. Eren has never seen him like this, but then again, they’ve also never had the potential of seeing this many ghosts at once before, so he can understand. 

He sits next to Levi and feels hyperaware of everywhere they’re touching (which, granted, isn’t very many places, but still). Levi drinks his grapefruit soda and sees Eren staring, so Eren quickly looks away, smiling to himself. “Jean, how are _you_ feeling about all the ghosts?”

Jean, midway through his panini, startles at being spoken to. “What? Did you just ask me how I’m feeling? What the fuck, dude.”

“Don’t be such a bitch,” Eren sighs. “Armin’s freaked out, Levi is… Levi, what are you?”

“I’m fine!” Jean huffs. “Leave me alone, don’t talk to me!”

“Jesus,” Eren mutters, stealing Levi’s grapefruit soda to take a sip. “Marco clearly has some sort of sixth sense, because he sees what none of us fucking can. Something that’s not even there.”

Jean throws a straw at Eren, which Eren doesn’t even have to dodge because Jean has such horrible aim. He then remembers that Levi doesn’t like it when he and Jean goof around too much and looks at him nervously, but Levi’s doing just fine, chin in his fingerless-gloved hand. Levi takes the soda back from Eren and takes a sip, raising his eyebrows at him, and Eren smiles. “Seems like we’re all doing okay.”

“Yeah,” Levi says. “I didn’t expect otherwise.”

“That’s almost a nice thing to say, be careful,” Eren laughs. “Unless you’re implying that we’re all too dumb to treat this with the proper amount of, like, caution or whatever.”

Levi hums and finishes his soda. “Who knows what I’m implying. Are we done here? Hange is almost at the hotel.”

Armin looks up from his phone, still a little pale. “Mhm, let’s go. Eren, can I talk to you for a second?”

Eren blinks, glancing at Levi. “Um. Sure?”

Armin wavers, then shakes his head. “Never mind. Let’s just go. Classical music on the way there, if that’s okay.”

“That’s fine,” Eren says, wondering what the fuck is going on with Armin. He’ll probably see soon enough; Armin is bad at keeping secrets. Maybe he really is just scared as fuck about the ghosts, though, and wants to tell Eren about it since Eren is less likely to be shitty about it than Jean might be. Eren smiles at Armin and pats him on the back gently as they go out of Panera and to the van. He’s not good at talking about anything, really, so maybe it’s for the best that Armin changed his mind about having a heart-to-heart.

Eren opens the door for Levi and lets him get in first. “Why was Hange running late?”

“Who knows,” Levi says. “But it was probably because of their pet lizard, Bean. He’s very high-maintenance.”

“Ah,” Eren says. “Makes perfect sense. Bean is a good name for a lizard.”

“They think so too,” Levi says. “Have you ever stayed at the Plaza?”

“Uh, once, in college,” Eren says, trying to think back. “I rowed crew for, like, one quarter, and we had some sort of event downtown and they got us rooms. Pretty swanky. I didn’t see any ghosts, though.”

Levi hums, glancing around the back of the van again. “It’s huge. We’ll probably be there all night if there end up being multiple ghosts, just trying to track them down.”

“I’m in no rush,” Eren smiles. 

Armin pulls around the side of the hotel to the service garage. “Hange got in touch with management and we have spaces in the staff parking,” he explains. “They think we’re conducting seismic research.”

“Cool,” Eren says and hops out of the van once it’s parked to start unloading. “Where are we meeting everyone?”

“Out front,” Armin says. He looks nervous as hell again and won’t make eye contact with Eren. Eren feels really bad for him, but Armin has nothing to worry about, and hopefully he’ll see that soon.

Eren slings his backpack over his shoulder and takes Levi’s bag as well, along with their camera stuff. “Let’s go bust some ghosters, huh?”

Armin pats the side of the van, looking pale. “See you on the other side,” he mumbles.

Jean whoops and grabs his own bag. “Anyone else pumped? Maybe we’ll get a vacation after this.”

“No vacations,” Levi says. “It never stops. You think the afterlife is going to take a break just because we got lucky with some calculations? There’ll always be more.”

Eren rolls his eyes, smiling fondly, as they head out of the garage and start going around towards the main entrance to the building. “The point of a vacation is that it’s not forever, Levi, you don’t have to be such a buzzkill all the time. Oh, is that Hange’s team?”

There are a few large cars parked in front of the entrance; groups of people are walking up to the hotel with their arms full of various meters and scanners.

Levi frowns slightly, his walk slowing. “I don’t think so… I mean, I don’t recognize any of them.”

“What?” Eren says, glancing over the cars and the people unloading them. “But they’re clearly here for the…”

Across the driveway, Eren sees a couple of people carrying a large black box and talking to a girl in a red sweater.

Eren feels sick.

“Levi,” he mutters, stepping back. “Let’s get out of here.”

Levi glances up at him, surprised. “Why?”

Eren shakes his head, looking away from the girl quickly. If he can see her, she can see him. “Just trust me. Please.”

“…Okay,” Levi starts to say, frowning, but Armin steps in front of Eren, looking determined.

“Eren. No,” he says, and suddenly Eren realizes why Armin’s been so weird and really wants to punch him. “It’s not what you think.”

“The fuck you mean, it’s not what I think,” Eren growls. “It doesn’t matter what it is. I’m not fucking talking to her.”

“What’s going on?” Levi says, looking between them. “Eren.”

“Um,” Jean says, staring across the way. “Is that Mikasa?”

“For fuck’s sake,” Eren snarls, stepping back again. “I’m not dealing with this, not today.”

“Eren, _listen to me_ ,” Armin says, grabbing Eren by the arm. “What’s Mikasa getting her PhD in?”

“Being a snake? I don’t fucking know, you think she told me?” Eren huffs, trying to pull his arm free. Armin’s grip is surprisingly strong, though, so he gives up.

“Quantum physics,” Armin says. “And she knows ghosts are real. She’s been studying them for the past year. She didn’t tell me in those exact words, but I sort of knew the general areas of her study, and when Hange started telling me all about their research, I put the pieces together and called her. She’s not here to talk to you. You don’t have to make a big deal out of it.”

“It’s— _what_? It’s a big fucking deal,” Eren says, eyes huge and cheeks bright with indignation and betrayal. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I knew you’d react like this,” Armin says, finally letting go of Eren’s arm. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m leaving,” Eren snaps. “I don’t have to put up with this.”

“Eren,” Levi says. He’s not looking at him. “Think about it for a second.”

“I’ve been thinking about it for a long fucking time, and if she doesn’t want anything to do with me, then she doesn’t want anything to fucking do with me,” Eren says, voice low. “So, what, we’re supposed to be cool now because she knows ghosts exist? Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Hey, guys!” Hange says from the street median, waving enthusiastically from under a mountain of equipment. Moblit is trailing them, trying to take something from them so they’re not quite so burdened, but they keep waving him off. “Lots of people here, huh? What’s going on?”

“Hi, Hange,” Armin smiles, hurrying across the street to talk to them. “Sorry, I really should have told you, but I have a couple friends at a Harvard physics lab, and they got interested and wanted to come down and see the place.”

“The more, the merrier, as long as they don’t interfere too much,” Hange hums. “Introduce me, come on! I’m always glad to meet fellow researchers.”

Armin glances at Eren, who refuses to look at him, and nods, gesturing for Hange to come with him. Hange and Moblit go with him, and Jean, after watching Eren for a second, does, too.

Eren is rooted in place and trying to breathe. He can’t believe Armin would go behind his back like that, and the more he thinks about it, the more pissed he gets. He knows he’s being stubborn and dramatic, but Mikasa was the one who decided it was time for them to stop being in each other’s lives, so _technically_ , he’s just respecting her wishes.

Levi puts his hand on Eren’s back. “Walk,” he says quietly.

“What?” Eren mutters, glancing at him. “No, I’m not going to—”

“ _Walk_ ,” Levi says again. It’s clearly not up for debate.

Eren exhales, pushes Levi’s hand off, and stomps forward, following Armin and Hange.

“Hi!” Hange says once they’ve crossed the road. “Hi, are you the Harvard people?”

The girl in the red sweater turns around and glances over the group. Her face doesn’t change. “Yes, we are. Hello.”

“Dr. Hange Zoe, University of Chicago,” Hange says, reaching out their hand and shaking Mikasa’s. “Glad to have you onboard!”

“Mikasa Jaeger,” Mikasa says. “I’ve read your work, it’s an honor to meet you in person.”

“Huh,” Hange says, smiling and glancing back at Eren. “That’s Eren’s last name, too!”

“Yes,” Mikasa says, unblinking. “He’s my brother.”

“Hi, Mikasa,” Armin says, waving shyly as Hange looks at Eren again, shocked. Eren is resolutely looking at anything but Mikasa and wishing the ground would open up and swallow him so he won’t have to deal with this. “Thanks for coming.”

“I wouldn't miss it for the world,” Mikasa says, then gestures to some of the equipment being carried out of the cars. “Dr. Zoe, I could use your help with this. I understand you’ve been building a modified Faraday cage. We have something similar, but I’m not sure if it’s stable or not.”

“Yeah, of course!” Hange says, and goes with Mikasa after sending another questioning look Eren’s way.

Eren frowns, glaring at Mikasa as she leaves. “This is bullshit,” he mumbles.

“Grow up,” Levi says firmly, and Eren, surprised, looks at him. Levi’s jaw is tight and he’s frowning. “I mean it. Deal with your fucking problems. She was wrong, sure, but that was years ago. Maybe you can’t fix it, but you can at least be civil. You think it doesn’t hurt me that Isabel and I haven’t talked in half a decade? But if she showed up at my doorstep willing to listen, I’d let her in. Think about your actions for _once in your life_ and don’t make a choice you’ll regret.”

Eren stares at him, heart pounding. “It’s different—”

“It’s not that different,” Levi says. “You don’t know what she’s thinking. You said that it wasn’t about you, right? She was just going through a lot? Maybe she’s done going through it. Maybe she’s ready for things to be better again. But you’ll never know unless you grow the fuck up.”

Eren breathes out and looks away. He knows Levi is right, he just… can’t. “Don’t we have some ghosts to catch?” he mumbles, adjusting his grip on his bag. He can feel Levi looking at him and it’s a little unsettling, so he glances down at him again. “What?”

Levi doesn’t say anything, just leans up and kisses him. Hard but fast. When he pulls away, he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and goes over to where Armin is.

Eren looks at him, then over to Mikasa and Hange, and feels exponentially worse with every second.

“Hey,” Jean says, and Eren jumps, having forgotten he was there. “I know it sucks, man. But you can just focus on the ghosts, right?”

Eren sighs, kicking at a loose piece of gravel. “Right. Just… it sucks.”

“Yeah, I know it sucks, I just said I know it sucks.” Jean bites his lip and very awkwardly pats Eren on the top of the head. “There, there.”

Eren snorts a laugh and pushes Jean away. “Asshole. I’m feeding you to the ghosts first chance I get.”

Jean grins, then jogs away from Eren over to the others to see if he can help with anything.

Eren sighs again, rubbing the back of his neck, and eventually trudges over to Levi. There are some other people there, too, probably from Mikasa’s Harvard group. “What’d I miss?”

“We’re just distributing who’s going where,” Armin says. “Seems like the ghost activity is gonna be concentrated in the corners of the building at first. Has to do with the… structure. All the metal reinforcements.”

“Okay, just tell me where to go,” Eren nods. 

Armin checks the notebook in his hands. “I think you might be most useful as, like, a floater. Going from location to location, checking up on everyone, bringing things to whoever needs them.”

“That’s a lot of responsibility,” Eren says, glancing over at Mikasa. She’s not looking at him, which makes him sorta angry again. “But I can handle it.”

“Great,” Armin says. “I’ll let Mike take over with the explaining from here.”

A tall man with floppy hair steps forward and starts explaining. Eren is only half-listening, but he gets the gist of it. He, Levi, and a couple of Harvard people are a floating team; everyone else is getting split into teams of three and going to the corner stairwells of the building to put some sort of energy-focusing devices there. Primarily on the 12th floor, apparently, because that’s where the ghosts are drawn to. Then they’ll move somewhere else in the hotel. Eren doesn’t understand it, but he doesn’t have to. He’s just the manpower, apparently.

He’s mildly miffed that he and Jean aren’t the most important people in this ghost hunt, which is what he’s used to, but as long as he’s got Levi with him he can get through just about anything.

And tonight, he’ll have a lot to endure, he thinks bitterly to himself as he glances at Mikasa again.

Jean and Armin are on a team together, and Eren waves bye to them before going with his own team to wait in the lobby. Outside, night has fallen, and they take the elevator up to the 12th floor. Levi’s gone quiet and he keeps checking his pockets; he must need a cigarette. Eren makes a mental note to offer to go with him for a smoke break soon.

They have to be near-silent as they go through the halls — the hotel is operating, after all, and there are people in the rooms all around them — so Eren has plenty of time to stew in his grouchiness about the whole situation. He _knows_ he’s being childish, and maybe his immediate gut reaction was a little much, but he’s entitled to be both childish and impulsive in this case, he thinks. Mostly, it’s just so weird to be in the same space as his sister again, and he feels a weird, nostalgic pain for the days when they were children and friends, doing each other’s homework and staying up past their bedtime and fighting imaginary monsters and sledding down the stairs on big puffy winter coats. 

Those days are gone because of _her_ , Eren reminds himself sternly. Sure, their teen years had been pretty tough and he’d always been a pretty shitty brother, but she was the one who cut it all off completely. Maybe it had been salvageable before then. Now, he’s not sure if it is. 

And he’s not sure if he wants it to be.

But Levi, who has experience with this, made it pretty clear that Eren should at least try. Obviously, he barely knows anything about the specifics of the situation, but the sentiment isn’t misplaced. Eren misses Mikasa, despite her faults. And since she’d agreed to come even though she probably knew Eren would also be here, maybe she’s open to some sort of reconciliation.

He shakes his head as if to try and physically clear those thoughts out. Levi glances up at him, half-smiling. “You okay?”

“Never better,” Eren mumbles, and opens the door of the northwest stairwell so everyone can go through.

He doesn’t recognize anyone on this team except Moblit, who looks marginally less stressed than he had the last time they’d met. The various Harvard people communicate, copy down some notes, and move on. This is shaping up to be a dreary night, unless some ghosts start showing up. 

After about an hour of this, Levi gets a text. He pulls it out and reads it, sighing. “It’s from Hange. Everyone has set up the necessary ionizers in the stairwells, so we’re moving to the ballroom.”

“Cool,” Eren says, yawning. 

“I just got the same message from Mikasa,” one of the Harvard people says, then looks at Eren inquisitively. “Did you say your name was Eren? Like, Mikasa’s brother Eren?”

Eren rolls his eyes. “No autographs, please. I’m a very busy man. Levi, you might have time for a smoke now, since everything is getting shifted around.”

“Good idea,” Levi says, getting out his cigarettes and pressing his arm gratefully to Eren’s for a moment. “I’ll meet you there.”

Eren nods and heads for the elevator. He can feel the Harvard guy looking at him curiously, but he’s not in the fucking mood to be stared at like a zoo animal. He has no idea what the hell Mikasa has been telling people about him, but he doubts it’s been anything good.

As he goes out of the elevator, the guy says, “It’s good to meet you, man,” which makes no sense with Eren’s theory that Mikasa’s been badmouthing him for the past few years, so Eren scowls and stomps along to the Florentine Room without acknowledging that.

A couple of the teams have arrived already, including Jean and Armin’s. But they’re busy dragging a huge metal box out of one of the other elevators, so Eren leaves them alone. Hange is talking animatedly to someone, Moblit is also unloading equipment, and Levi is somewhere else smoking, which means Eren has run out of people to potentially hang out with and must, therefore, just stand there looking awkward. He peers into the ballroom and sees an expansive space with an arched ceiling, covered in paintings and various architectural flourishes he could probably have named back in college but has forgotten the names of completely by now. It’s a beautiful room; too bad it’s about to be covered in ghosts.

Someone touches Eren’s arm and he ignores it for a second, since it’s probably just Armin, but when he looks down he gets the shock of his life. It’s Mikasa.

“Eren,” she says, looking as placid and indestructible as ever. “Let’s talk.”

“Let’s not,” Eren says, somewhat frantically jerking his arm away. 

“No, I think we should talk.”

“Nuh-uh. Go away, you have science shit to do, a Ph-motherfucking-D to get.”

“Eren,” Mikasa says again, frowning. “Please. I think we’ve put it off long enough.”

Eren fidgets, looking for an escape route. “Maybe. But that doesn’t mean—”

“Stand still and let me apologize, okay?” Mikasa says. Her demeanor cracks for the first time and she looks just as awkward as Eren feels. 

Eren huffs and puts his hands on his hips. “Like it’s gonna fuck with your ability to apologize if I’m, like, doing the Macarena.” He’s being obnoxious, but he can’t bring himself to care. She deserves it. Right?

Mikasa ignores this, regaining her composure. “I owe you an apology. But I’m not apologizing to you because I should. I’m apologizing because I want to. I’ve put it off for long enough, and I hope you’ll be able to at least listen, if not forgive me.”

“…Was that the whole thing?” Eren says, wrinkling his nose. “That was pretty brief.”

“No, that wasn’t the whole thing,” Mikasa huffs. “I had a speech prepared, but I left my notecards in the car. I can summarize, though. Before I apologize, I need you to understand why I did what I did. I’ve never fully explained it to you or to anyone. Now that some time has passed, I can be objective enough to do so.”

Eren shifts from foot to foot and eyes her. “I’m listening.”

Mikasa looks grateful and takes a breath. “I know it might not have felt like it to you, but I spent my whole life giving and giving. I was a caretaker for you and I was a caretaker for Mom and that left barely any time for me to take care of myself. I don’t want to call you ungrateful, Eren, because that’s an unfair thing to call anyone. But you were… difficult. I think we can agree on that. It was like a full-time job. You’re a bright boy, you’ve always had potential, and maybe it wasn’t my place to try and push you to achieve what I thought you should achieve. But you weren’t striving for anything, so I thought someone had to on your behalf. I think you knew all of this already.”

Eren nods tersely, chewing his lower lip. He doesn’t know what to make of this half-baked apology, but he’s still listening, at least.

Mikasa sighs. “But you don’t know— I don’t think you really can know— how it felt. It was a little unhealthy, at times, how committed I was to the cause of you making the most of your life. I was losing myself, literally, my sense of self as an individual. When we both got into college, I was so happy. I thought maybe you could finally do what I wanted you to do without me forcing you along. And, of course, I started reading some texts on woman’s role in society, how we’re expected to nurture and receive nothing in return. As silly as it may sound, that really made sense to me. When you got Cs in all your classes and cursed me out every time I tried to tell you to work harder, I realized that there was no point. You’d never gain anything from it, and all I was doing was expending my emotional labor for no reason. I had focused on someone else my whole life. It was time to focus on myself.”

She stops, unaccustomed to speaking so much. Around them, people are powering up equipment and bolting the doors of the ballroom open. Eren doesn’t know what to say, because he sort of knew most of that, but it’s different to hear her say it. 

“I went about it the wrong way,” Mikasa says, each word sounding like it’s a struggle to get out. “I thought I had the moral high ground, that I was doing what was right for both of us. Maybe you weren’t ready to just be thrown out into the world like that, but it seems like you’ve done pretty well for yourself, all things considered. I think… in retrospect, I didn’t have to push you away in order to find myself. I was wrong to do that. And I’m sorry. Do you accept my apology?”

Eren is a little stunned. “Uh. Do I have to decide right now?”

A smile flickers over Mikasa’s face. “No. But don’t wait as long as I did.”

“I won’t,” Eren says. He runs a hand through his hair, wishing Levi would come back soon. “So. Quantum ghosts, huh.”

“Yes,” Mikasa says, glancing into the ballroom briefly. “I was planning on telling you eventually. I’ve never been as brave as you, so I couldn’t just out and say it.”

“Brave? I thought I was reckless,” Eren says, teasing.

“That, too,” Mikasa agrees. “To be fair, though, what I do in regard to ghosts is somewhat different from what you do.”

“Not anymore!” Eren says. “Obviously. Um, it was just the stupid vlogging thing for a while, but then I met Levi and saw some real ghosts and things got different.”

“Levi,” Mikasa says, evidently connecting the name with the face. “Is he your boyfriend?”

Eren goes bright red. “Uh— it’s complicated?” It’s weird enough to be talking to Mikasa; the last thing his overwhelmed little brain needs right now is for her to start acting like a sister again and poke fun at him for his crush.

Mikasa nods and looks like she’s about to say something else when someone from inside the ballroom calls for her input on some data. She excuses herself and goes to check, leaving Eren with a weird buoyant feeling in his chest. He hadn’t realized just how much her absence and the bad shit between them weighed him down until now. It’s not all better yet, and he doesn’t know how long it’ll take to fully forgive her for just ditching him like that, even though her reasons make sense, but it’s better than it was. Levi had been right.

Speaking of Levi, he’s been gone a while, but as soon as Eren has that thought, he sees him emerging from an elevator, looking a little wind-swept and sleepy. Eren goes to him immediately, needing some confirmation that he’s not dreaming. “Hi!”

Levi blinks up at him, fixing his fingerless gloves at the wrists. “Hello. You look strange.”

“Thanks,” Eren says. “Mikasa talked to me.”

“Oh?” Levi says. “How’d that go?”

Eren hums, thinking about it. “Like… I don’t know? Fine? It was super weird, mostly, but she apologized and I’m, you know, deciding.”

Levi nods slightly, heading for the doorway to the ballroom. “That’s good.”

Eren thinks he might agree with that, and follows him. 

Inside, things are bustling, but starting to quiet down. The huge metal boxes people had been dragging around earlier have been opened to reveal dainty wire structures that look almost floral, their spokes extended like fingers and curved, beckoning. There are all sorts of sensors strapped to the walls and Eren sees at least four disposable cameras being distributed. Hange and Mikasa are comparing notes, Armin is talking to some other Harvard people, and even Jean is helping someone unpack a box. Eren feels strangely proud of his ragtag group, and he glances down at Levi, remembering how Levi had called them “my team” whilst dragging the Ghost-Mythbusters. Blink and you’ll miss it, but they became family.

Levi gets out his phone and checks the time. It’s half-past nine, so they’ve got a ways to go. Someone goes over to the doorway and loudly announces that they’re going to turn off the lights, and there are mumbles of assent as people get out flashlights. The overheads go off and the room is filled with the glow of phone screens and tiny LEDs. “Spooky,” Levi comments.

Eren snickers. “Ghostly, even.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. Let’s go see if Hange needs any help.” Levi heads over to where Hange is, but Eren dawdles a little, distracted by the paintings on the ceiling, which look very creepy in the barely-there light.

“Eren, right?” says an unfamiliar voice. Eren looks for the source and sees a dark-haired girl holding some binders, evidently one of the Harvard people.

“Yeah, that sure is me,” Eren says. “Sup?”

The girl muffles a smile. “I watch your videos. Well, we’ve all seen them, but I’ve seen, like, all of them.”

This is more surprising than Mikasa’s apology. “What,” Eren says, dumbfounded. “Are you serious?”

The girl nods. “Mikasa told us about them and we all watched a few on a slow day in the lab. I thought they were super funny! You look exactly the same as you do in the videos. Jean looks different, though.”

“Yeah, Jean’s so photogenic that it almost makes it seem like he’s a normal human being and not a— wait, Mikasa told you about them?” Eren says. This is getting stranger by the second. Maybe he is dreaming after all. “Like, on purpose?”

“Yes! She doesn’t talk about you a lot, but we got that much, at least,” the girl smiles. “I’m Mina, by the way. Can I just ask why you guys go to IHOP so much? Do you have a deal with them or something?”

Eren snorts. “That’s Jean’s number one wish, but no. It’s just good food. Quote me on that.” He grins at Mina. “Thanks for watching. I know they’re kinda dumb, but we have a good time making them.”

“I bet,” Mina says. “This kind of stuff sounds really exciting in theory, but it’s so much waiting, you know?”

“Hopefully it’ll be worth it tonight,” Eren says, then spots Levi again. “Nice meeting you, Mina, I know I’m disappointing in person but don’t stop giving us clicks, please. ‘Scuse me!” He smiles at her, then goes past to be by Levi’s side. “Hey, Levi. Guess what.”

Levi is holding a stack of dot matrix printer paper for Hange. “What?”

“Some of these people,” Eren says, keeping his voice down even though he’s super excited, “have seen our videos.”

“I pity them,” Levi says, but Eren can tell by the twist of his lips that he’s joking. “That’s interesting. The odds are pretty low. Do they… like your videos?”

“Yeah! Well, that one girl did, at least,” Eren says, taking the paper from Levi so his arms don’t get tired. “Apparently, Mikasa told the lab about them, and not even to drag me.”

Levi raises his eyebrows. “That’s good news.”

“I know, right? Don’t tell Jean, though, he’ll get all uppity,” Eren says. He glances around to confirm Jean isn’t getting into trouble, and sees him talking to Mikasa. They’d really hated each other in Eren’s freshman year, but by sophomore year Mikasa had sort of accepted Jean as a steady presence in Eren’s life and grudgingly tolerated him. It’s surreal to see them interacting again. “What’s this weird paper for?”

“It’s dot matrix paper,” Hange says from the floor. “For a dot matrix printer.”

“Thanks,” Eren says, glancing at Levi, who looks like he’s barely smothering a smile. “Hey, how long do you think this is going to take?”

“The accelerators we put in the stairwells should accelerate it,” Hange says, looking up from their notes. “I don’t know by how much, though. I guess we’ll see.”

Eren hums and looks around the room. “How many of these people do you think have actually seen a ghost?”

Levi regards everyone for a second, then shrugs. “Probably none.”

“Nice,” Eren grins. “Lots of ghostly cherries being popped tonight. If the ghosts ever show up, that is.”

“They will,” Hange says vehemently. “Just give it time.”

Levi touches Eren’s elbow lightly. “You probably don’t have to stay. It seems like they’ve got it pretty well covered.”

“You kidding? Of course I don’t _have_ to, no one _has_ to do anything, but I want to stay,” Eren nods. “Even if there don’t end up being any ghosts.”

“Suit yourself,” Levi says. 

“Are you leaving?” Eren says, a little surprised.

“No,” Levi replies, looking down at Hange, who is transcribing hand-written notes into a computer. “Just giving you the option.”

“Yeah, I’m missing out on some rockin’ party right now,” Eren says, rolling his eyes, and leans down to press a kiss to Levi’s cheek. “I like doing this. It’s weird that there are so many other people here, though.”

“I know,” Levi murmurs, not pulling away even though Eren stays close. “It’s… strange to not be the expert, for once.”

Eren laughs. “Were you ever the expert?”

Levi frowns and starts to say something, but the lights in the room flicker, even though they’re not all connected to one power source. A hush falls over everyone, but they soon start up talking again, as it doesn’t seem that ghosts are imminent just yet.

“Soon,” Hange mumbles, scribbling something down so hard that their pencil lead breaks. “Mark my words.”

“The more tired Hange gets, the more they speak like a cartoon villain,” Levi informs Eren dryly. “Let’s leave them alone. Where’s Moblit? He’ll deal with this.”

“Moblit deals with enough, let’s leave him alone, too,” Eren suggests with a small smile. “Where’s Armin? I bet he’s having the time of his life.”

Levi looks around and points Armin out to Eren. Armin is on the heels of the tall floppy-haired man who had been giving instructions earlier, eagerly adjusting scanners and taking notes and generally having the time of his life. “Sure does seem like it, yes.”

“Well, this is pretty fun,” Eren says, grinning, and the flashlights flicker again.

“Sooner,” Hange mutters.

“Can we clear the center of the room, please,” someone calls, and people shuffle out of the middle. The wire cages are set up closer to the corners, though, and there are still people around those. Eren wonders how safe all of this is, but if Mikasa, the most cautious person in the world, approved it, it must be fine.

Hange checks their watch and exhales. “Hold onto your pants,” they say ominously.

“Is that a thing people say? I think it’s supposed to be ‘hats,’” Eren says. “But okay.”

The lights flicker and go out completely. Concerned mumblings and the sounds of flashlights being smacked against palms to jostle the batteries into position fill the room. Eren feels a prickle on the back of his neck, which then turns into a shiver that runs down his whole body. He glances at Levi, whom he can barely see, and Levi also looks on-edge. Levi looks up at him, and then the room goes blinding white, making Eren wince and cover his face.

Once he’s adjusted to the brightness, he lifts his head and sees them in the middle of the ballroom. There are four of them and they seem uneasy; the light flowing from them is hazy and shooting out sparks. They can’t stay still. The room is dead silent, and everyone is staring at the figures, wide-eyed and motionless.

The figures turn over each other like fish in a school, clinging and breaking away every few seconds, and a low rumbling sound begins, building and building until Eren can feel it in his ribcage like he’s front row at a concert. One of the ghosts begins to keen, its translucent arms extending and distorting. No one is moving, utterly transfixed by the sight, and the figures start to rise slowly, drawn towards the ceiling.

Their light begins to bleed out of the middle of the room towards the walls as the ghosts continue to sway and swim in the air, rising higher and higher. Eren is paralyzed, chills running over his skin, and the room is still, barely anyone even breathing. The tendrils of light from the ghosts are almost touching him, now, and he finds himself wishing they would, although he doesn’t know what might happen. He’s tired all of a sudden, too, eyes heavy, and he can’t look away from the ghosts as they continue on their inexorable journey upward.

Finally, movement. Hange leaps up and sprints over to a breaker switch on the wall. “Hang on!” they shout over the rumbling, which is now nearly a roar, and throw all their weight into slamming the lever down.

Electricity slashes through the air, making Eren’s hair stand on end, and the ghosts are pulled apart, crackling and sizzling, their light retracting like a whip back to them, and with another electrical whirr, they are each sucked into the delicate wire cages at the corners of the room. There, they weave through the metal spokes, subdued and glowing, and a hush falls over the room again.

Everything is quiet for a few moments. Still. And then, as if everyone remembers all at once that they have a job to do, the room bursts into motion and sound, papers flying and devices beeping as the scientists run to their stations and start working on maintaining the stability of the situation, on researching what’s finally right in front of them. People are shouting and excited, and the ghosts are motionless, asleep.

For the first time on a night like this, Eren finds himself wanting to leave. Just slip out, unnoticed. He isn’t needed here; he’s struck this strange balance where this wouldn’t have been possible without him, but he no longer has anything to contribute. He knows nothing about the science behind how this works, and if he tries to help, he’ll only interfere.

Everyone is running, nobody is walking, as papers are flung around the room and camera shutters click. Eren just feels tired. He steps forward and joins a group of people in the southeast corner of the room gathered around the smallest of the four ghosts, taking a heavy reference encyclopedia from a young woman whose arms are too full as it is. But after standing there for about five minutes, the group moves on to the next ghost, and Eren sets the book down and follows them, feeling very much out of place.

Lonely, too, even though there’s people all around, including his best friends and his sister. And Levi, who is—

Realizing that Levi is still there hits him almost as hard as the ghosts did, and he turns around on the spot, breaking away from the group he’s with to try and find him. He spots him across the room, looking just as out of place as Eren feels, and Eren could cry with relief. Levi feels like the answer to every question Eren’s ever asked, and he’s standing right there, right within reach, hand over the pocket where Eren knows he keeps his cigarettes and eyes cautious as he hands some devices to one of the Harvard people and steps away.

Eren goes over to him, pressing their shoulders together gently. Levi looks up at him, a wary expression just verging on shy decorating his face, but when he sees that it’s Eren, he almost looks relieved. Eren watches him for a moment, then breathes out slowly and reaches down to take his hand.

“Let’s go home.”


	12. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What do you want, Levi?”
> 
> They go home.

Going home is a fine idea, but once they get into the van (after Eren has told Jean and Armin they’re leaving), Eren abruptly realizes that they have two options for where to go, and he doesn’t know which Levi would prefer. He glances over to him, nervous about asking, and clears his throat quietly. 

Levi looks at Eren, a hint of an amused smile playing on his lips. “My house, I think.”

“You got it,” Eren says, relieved, and starts the car.

As he drives, he grapples quietly with the realization that his work is done. He’ll keep making vlogs, probably, but the actual ghost hunting business is over for him. The hunt was successful, and now Mikasa and her fancy-shmancy Harvard people and Hange will figure out how ghosts work and win a Nobel prize or something. Eren won’t even be useful for manpower anymore. 

Levi is quiet, too, even more so than usual. Eren looks over and sees him with his head leaned against the window, eyes closed. He deserves some rest. Eren can’t even imagine how he must be feeling; twelve whole years of ridicule and bad luck resolved tonight. Eren is honored to have been a part of it, or even a driving force behind it. He’s honored just to know Levi, really. 

But as he parks the van in front of Levi’s house, he starts to feel a little anxious, his old paranoia coming back. He’s been confident lately that there’s at least some sort of future for himself and Levi, but now that he’s faced directly with the end of their joint ghost hunting career, he doesn’t know how to feel. He’s frowning as he gets out of the car and goes over to open the door for Levi, but tries to be optimistic. Levi is a good person, anyway. If he’s going to dump Eren, he’s going to let him down gently.

Levi unlocks the door of the house and pauses, turning to look up at Eren. “Do you… want to come in?” he says, a little awkwardly. “I have tea and assorted snacks.”

“I’m familiar with the contents of your kitchen,” Eren says, then smiles. “Yeah, I’d love to.”

“Okay,” Levi says, then pushes the door open and goes in first. Eren follows, taking his shoes off. “I don’t have much for dinner, though.”

“That’s fine,” Eren assures, checking his phone quickly to confirm Jean and Armin are still doing okay. “I’m not that hungry. Ghosts got me too hype.”

“Really? You don’t seem hype,” Levi says, turning on the lights and going through to the kitchen.

“Neither do you,” Eren points out, following and trying not to feel dread. “What’s up?”

Levi shrugs, putting on the kettle. “There were too many people there. Distracted me.”

“Yeah,” Eren sighs. “That was weird. And… Mikasa being there was even weirder.”

Levi hums quietly in response, reaching up to get out mugs. “Who started the conversation? Actually— it’s fairly obvious that she did. You’d never talk to her of your own accord.”

“Wow, call me out,” Eren mumbles. “Yeah, she talked to me first, and it was uncomfortable but, like, not horrible. Whatever, I’ll probably call her next week or something.”

“Or you could have lunch with her, since she’s in town,” Levi murmurs. “Now’s your chance.”

Eren sighs, leaning against the counter. “I guess so. I’ll think about it.”

They both go quiet, and Eren fidgets. He hates not having anything to say to Levi. It’s just as he’d feared, the lack of ghosts means a lack of interest Levi has in him. This is horrible and he feels horrible; for once, it seems like he’s actually crashing from the high of seeing ghosts. The silence between them, although usually comfortable, now feels suffocating, and Eren’s palms are cold and clammy. Levi makes him so happy, and Eren has rather selfishly gotten used to Levi making him happy, so this sudden change has Eren feeling unsettled and nervous and like he doesn’t know what to do with his hands, where to look.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat?” Levi asks, looking through cupboards. “I have saltines, Hange finally brought me saltines. I also have a frozen strudel thing that I can put in the oven for you.”

“I’m okay, but thanks,” Eren says, smiling slightly. “Hey, where’s Farlan?”

Levi glances around. “I think he should still be in the other room, listening to podcasts. I’ll go say hi in a minute. Remind me how you take your tea?”

“Uh,” Eren says, unable to remember how he takes his own tea, “one and a half sugars. Thanks.”

Levi inclines his head slightly to indicate he’d heard, then carefully prepares the tea. He looks like he’s on the verge of saying something, so Eren waits, but Levi remains quiet as he slides one of the mugs over to Eren. Eren wants to kiss him, to flat-out ask him what’s wrong, because something is clearly wrong and either or both of those things seem like they’ll fix it, and knowing that Levi’s done with him now will be better than dragging it out and waiting for him to say it first, but he can’t access his usually endless supply of courage for some reason. For once, uncertainty seems better than a certain outcome. He picks up his mug and curls his hands around it, taking a small sip even though it’s too hot.

“Is it too hot?” Levi asks.

“Nah,” Eren says, looking down into his tea. He’s quiet for another moment, then carefully tries, “You, uh. Are you okay?”

Levi pauses, then nods slightly. “I might eat something. You’re sure you don’t want anything?”

“I mean, I’ll never actually say no to free food,” Eren says, setting his mug down. “Can I help cook?”

“I don’t have the energy to cook anything too elaborate,” Levi says, opening the fridge. “But let’s see what we have. Go look at the pantry, see if there’s anything you like.”

Eren nods and pushes off the counter to go check out the cupboards. The kitchen is narrow and the fridge is on the way, so he unexpectedly finds himself brushing past Levi as he walks. Levi’s hand moves very quickly, grabbing Eren’s arm, and Eren stops, looking down at him and swallowing. Levi has an expression on his face reminiscent of the one he’d had the first time he’d kissed Eren, months ago way back in Schaumburg, and neither of them moves until Levi closes the refrigerator door and crowds Eren against the counter.

“Hi,” Eren barely has time to say before Levi is pressing up close and kissing him like he’s starving, and something in Eren snaps, relieved and desperate and wanting, and he puts his hands on Levi, dragging him in closer, closer, and giving as good as he’s getting. 

Levi is warm and much less soft than he looks, lean muscle under his turtleneck under Eren’s hands, and Eren forgets how to breathe as Levi licks into his mouth and pulls his hair. He can’t move — not that he'd want to — because of the way Levi’s got him pinned against the counter, and he curls his hands tightly around Levi’s hips, giving Levi’s lower lip a bite. He’s rewarded for this by getting kissed even harder, tongues and teeth pressing together as Levi grabs handfuls of Eren’s shirt and drags him down so he doesn’t have to stand on his toes. All his fears, all his worries are forgotten, he can barely even think with Levi kissing him like this.

Eren, bold, grabs a handful of Levi’s ass, and Levi arches against him, his hand in Eren’s hair going tight. It feels like Levi is everywhere at once, it’s nearly impossible to keep up, and Eren feels overwhelmed by all this attention, by how thoroughly Levi is kissing him, by how close he is. He pushes his hands up Levi’s sweater and feels his skin, and Levi melts, teeth sinking into Eren’s lower lip. His waist is so narrow, and if Eren didn’t know any better, he’d think of him as slim and delicate, but he knows Levi could probably snap him in half. He’s into it.

“Take me upstairs and fuck me,” Levi says against Eren’s mouth.

Eren sucks in a shaky breath, mind flashing back to Levi giving Jean sexting advice and suggesting to not flat-out demand to get fucked unless the intent is to come off as bossy. “Okay,” he says, but he can’t keep his hands off Levi long enough to be able to pull back and head for the stairs. Levi isn’t complaining, though, because he’s plenty distracted, too, clutching at Eren and pressing a thigh between his legs as Eren presses him, in turn, against the counter.

They stay like that for a while, touching and kissing and inextricable and burning, until Levi pushes at Eren’s chest, making a frustrated noise. “I _mean_ it.”

“Okay, okay!” Eren says, pulling back and hooking his fingers through Levi’s belt loops to tug him along. “Upstairs. To fuck you. Got it.”

“Have you always been this smart?” Levi says, looking gloriously disheveled, and Eren sways in to kiss him again, sliding their tongues together and swallowing the low, sweet sound Levi makes. “Eren— _please_. If I’ve been able to keep it together for fucking _months_ , you can get a hold of yourself long enough to take me to bed.”

“I’d rather you got a hold of me,” Eren says, biting Levi’s lower lip and tugging it back. Levi moans, hands clutching Eren’s hair, and Eren is practically glowing. Levi has wanted him this whole time — Levi has had trouble restraining himself from jumping Eren like this. Levi’s not going anywhere, not leaving him. Christmas has come early. “What were you saying?”

“Shut up,” Levi mutters, pushing Eren back. They stumble together, still kissing, but Eren blindly guides them in the direction of the stairs. There are so many things to push Levi against on the way, though, like the wall and the back of the couch and the wall again, and Levi reacts beautifully every time, even though Eren can sense he’s getting a little impatient. Finally, they’re at the foot of the stairs, and Eren pulls back with the utmost reluctance so he can go up without risking any broken bones. Levi looks up at him, cheeks flushed and eyes dark, and _pouts_ , hands on his hips, and Eren can’t resist him, he doesn’t know how he’s been able to resist him this long, and pulls him in for another kiss.

“You ever seen the— the— it’s called _The Room_ ,” Eren pants quietly, running his hands up Levi’s sweater again. “It’s supposed to be one of the worst movies of all time, but I just think it’s funny, and anyway there’s like two sex scenes that happen on this random rickety spiral staircase—”

“Shut _up_ ,” Levi says more insistently this time, tugging on Eren’s shirt and pressing his tongue into Eren’s mouth, and Eren shuts up with a happy noise, a little dizzied by how hard he is already and because Levi is kissing him too intensely to be able to breathe much.

Finally, Levi drags himself away and starts up the stairs, fingers curling around Eren’s wrist so he has to follow. Eren, dazed, stumbles up after him, and puts his hand on Levi’s waist as they walk. Levi leans into the touch, but doesn’t look back, determined to get to the bedroom without distractions this time. 

They go down the hallway and Levi opens the door. Eren doesn’t even have time to look around, let alone notice any decorations or revel in being allowed into Levi’s bedroom, before Levi is pushing him down onto the bed and straddling him. They kiss like it’s been years since they’ve kissed, even though it’s literally only been thirty seconds, and Levi’s hands curl tightly at the collar of Eren’s shirt.

“Are you attached to this shirt?” Levi murmurs, settling more comfortably in Eren’s lap. He squirms right against Eren’s dick, and Eren makes a small noise. “Like, will you mind if I tear it?”

“Levi,” Eren says, dazed, “you can do anything you want.”

Levi grins, breathless and a little wild. “Don’t tempt me.” He yanks Eren’s shirt off, and when it gets stuck on Eren’s wrist, he makes an impatient noise and fumbles with it. Eren tries to help him out by wriggling his arm, but it doesn’t do much, and Levi gives up in another moment, kissing Eren deeply again. He drags his palms up Eren’s chest and Eren shivers, his fingers slipping up the hem of Levi’s sweater. He can’t even think right now, all he is is _want_ , and the most immediate thing he wants is for both of them to be naked. 

“Off,” he mumbles, plucking at Levi’s sweater, and Levi pulls back so he can comply. First, though, he needs to take his fingerless gloves off, which he does very daintily, one finger at a time so they don’t turn inside out when he removes them. Eren starts to smile and can’t stop, pressing his face into Levi’s shoulder. He runs his hands over Levi’s thighs and up to his hips and waist, making Levi shiver as he takes his sweater off. Eren is both surprised and not surprised to see that Levi is built as hell, but he can’t contemplate when Levi has time to go to the gym because he’s now consumed by thoughts of licking up his stomach and biting the v-lines of his hips. 

He starts by pushing Levi off his lap and onto the bed, moving on top of him and kissing him deep and messy. This leaves Levi’s hands free to roam over Eren, pulling him closer, and Eren gasps for air when Levi drags his nails down Eren’s back. He knows they need to slow down so they can get lube and condoms and whatever else they need, but he can barely think when he’s got Levi under him, hard in his jeans and breathing soft into Eren’s mouth.

He gets his wits about him enough to pull back and fumble to undo the button and zip of his own jeans, and Levi squirms free to do the same. Once that’s done, Levi scoots over to the side of the bed and yanks open the drawers of his nightstand, rifling through, and Eren can’t resist moving up behind him and slipping his arms around his waist, pressing his mouth to his shoulder. Levi leans back against him, distracted, and Eren slides his hand down Levi’s torso to press just above the waistband of his briefs. 

He’d imagined fire and brimstone, broken furniture, bite marks on every inch of skin, and what he has instead is a trembling armful of Levi, who goes still and needy when Eren finally moves his hand low to press over his dick through the fabric. And it’s so much better than anything Eren could have imagined when Levi makes a quiet noise and rolls his hips, head leaning back against Eren’s chest, cheeks flushed. Eren has no doubt that Levi can be plenty bossy in bed, but he’s also getting the sense that this is going to be more than just a fuck for both of them, which might have something to do with how helplessly Levi is leaning up to try and get a kiss.

After a few seconds of kissing him and palming over him and trying to coax out more sounds, Eren starts to remember that they had big plans to actually fuck, and this is counterproductive. He tries to communicate this by biting Levi’s lower lip and humming pointedly, and Levi, flushed, pushes him away so he can resume rifling through the drawers. Eren stays close, though, one hand settling on Levi’s slim waist, and eventually Levi succeeds in finding some condoms at the very back of the drawer and sits up to check the expiration date. Eren takes this opportunity to strip all the way, boxers and socks tossed aside and off the bed, and moves up to the headboard, holding his arms out for Levi to come in close. Levi turns to look at him and his face goes pink again, but he makes his way over, curling up by Eren’s side and kissing him.

Eren takes the bottle of lube Levi is holding and sets it aside in favor of pulling him closer, hands running all over him like he can’t get enough. Levi is kissing him back, but he’s a little shy, and he sits back in a moment to hook his thumbs in the waistband of his briefs and start pushing them down. He’s not looking at Eren, and he’s hasty, fumbling, nervous. Eren sits up, too, pulls Levi into his lap, and presses a finger under his chin to get him to look up. “Levi,” he whispers, “it’s just me. You don’t have to be nervous.”

“It’s _just_ you,” Levi repeats with a huff of a laugh. “That’s… you think that makes it better? That’s sort of the whole problem.” He looks up at Eren and Eren feels like he can’t breathe, because Levi has never looked at him with such a vulnerable expression before, raw and honest and wanting. Eren knows what he’s saying, and he’s both flattered and excited about it, relief flooding his body once again at the confirmation that his fears about Levi leaving him were unfounded. He can’t believe, in retrospect, that he’d missed this, that he hadn’t noticed how Levi looked at him and talked to him, that he’d actually thought Levi didn’t care. Instead of reassuring Levi that he feels the same and understands, he kisses him, and Levi finishes taking his briefs off and settles on top of Eren more comfortably.

They kiss for a while, Levi’s hands splayed over Eren’s sides and his hair occasionally brushing Eren’s face, and then Levi presses the lube into Eren’s palm again and whispers, “Please.”

“If you wanna slow down,” Eren starts to say, taking the lube, but Levi shakes his head quickly, cutting him off.

“I’m fine,” he says, then gives him a small smile. “It’s just been a while. I’ll tell you if something’s wrong. But I don’t want to slow down. I want you.”

Eren, flustered, nods and pops the cap of the lube. Levi is still flushed, but he looks more confident, and he’s smiling as he moves up so Eren can get started. He goes quiet when Eren presses a finger inside, then two, but at three he gets vocal, soft sounds escaping his lips as he works his hips down onto Eren’s fingers. Eren is just along for the ride, mesmerized by the way Levi bites his lip and furrows his brows and breathes, and when he crooks his fingers and makes Levi barely stifle a moan and arch his back, he feels like fireworks and he’s not even the one getting any sort of stimulation. “Doing good?” he asks, his other hand petting over Levi’s back.

“Kiss me,” Levi says in lieu of a real answer, tilting his head up. “Then fuck me.”

Levi _would_ be the type of person to make a to-do list for sex. Eren, smiling, leans down to kiss him, slowly drawing his fingers out, and Levi shivers, taking a second to get his bearings before his hand moves quickly and grabs the condoms. He sits back so he can separate a packet then tear it open, rolling it onto Eren’s cock without any of his earlier hesitation. His patience must have run out, and Eren is definitely not complaining. Levi pauses, though, once it’s on, and Eren looks at him, questioning and also gradually losing patience, especially with Levi’s hand on his dick. “What?”

Levi shakes his head slightly, his eyes flickering over Eren, then lingering. A small smile is playing over his lips, and he’s looking at Eren like he’s going to eat him. “Just looking at you.”

“Why look at me,” Eren says, bold, “when you can touch me? Come here.” He sits up, propped on his elbows, and Levi moves up to straddle him, hands pressing to his torso for support. 

“You make a compelling argument,” Levi says, smoothing his hands down Eren’s chest. He looks a little disbelieving, like he’s just won the lottery but it hasn’t sunk in yet, and when he curls his fingers around Eren’s dick, Eren forgets about this train of thought completely and just makes an embarrassing noise and arches up. Levi seems pleased by this, and strokes him slowly, watching his hand moving. But he doesn’t keep that up for long, evidently remembering his initial plan, and moves up further. “May I?”

“Yeah,” Eren says, sitting up so he can be closer to Levi. “How do you want me?”

Levi considers the question for a moment, reaching behind himself to line up Eren’s cock. “Like this. For now, anyway. Want to—” He goes a little red and doesn’t finish his sentence, but Eren thinks he knows what Levi was going to say and feels warm.

“Me, too,” Eren says, leaning in to kiss him. “Why are we taking so long? Thought you wanted me to fuck you.”

Levi sits down on Eren’s cock. “I do,” he says, but he’s only able to sound conversational for a moment before his breath rushes out and he has to clutch at Eren’s broad shoulders for support. Eren’s not much better off, either, but he’s staying still as best he can, not wanting to hurt Levi even though his body is screaming at him to move, to get some friction, to really give it to him. Levi beats him to it, though, rocking his hips back and forth, and the sound he makes sends shivers running all over Eren’s body. “Fuck—”

“I’ve got you,” Eren says, gasping slightly, and puts his arms around Levi, grinding up slowly as Levi gets more comfortable in his lap. He puts a hand on Levi’s nape for stability and runs his thumb over the edge of his undercut, like he’s done once before. This time, instead of squirming and pushing his hand away, Levi moans and presses against Eren, lips hot against his neck. He works his hips down and eventually finds a rhythm, rising and falling in his lap, and Eren tilts his head so he can watch the motion of Levi’s thighs. It’s difficult to reconcile his mental image of an all-powerful sex god Levi — which he’s been convinced of since their first kiss and based on Levi’s whole personality in general — with this, with Levi’s fingers digging into his shoulders and his eyes fluttered closed and his lips parted and a tiny smile occasionally flitting over his features, with the way he moans when Eren gets the angle right, but this is so much better. This is so much better.

“Can we move?” Levi pants, fingers curling on Eren’s shoulders. His thighs must be tired, and he probably hadn’t been expecting to do all the work.

“Yeah, of course, anything you want,” Eren says, gripping Levi’s waist and helping him off. “How do you— where?” He can’t quite formulate words, in a daze from how soft Levi’s skin is under his hands and drunk off the smell of him, but Levi gets his meaning. 

“Lie down,” Levi says, catching his breath, and presses at Eren’s chest. “On your side.”

Eren does as he’s told, body thrumming with the need to be inside Levi again, and holds out an arm for him. Levi lies down, pressed close, his back molded to Eren’s front, and nods slightly. 

“Like this,” Levi murmurs, taking one of Eren’s arms and wrapping it around his waist. It takes a moment for Eren to adjust so his face isn’t totally sinking into a pillow, and once he does, he sees the advantage of this pose; neither of them has to put a lot of physical effort in, but he’ll be able to go deep and fuck Levi hard, if he wants it. 

He tightens his arm around Levi’s waist, then moves his other hand down and, after a bit of fumbling, lines his cock back up, sliding into him slow and easy. Levi shudders and presses back against him, adjusting almost immediately. “Is that good?” Eren murmurs, lips brushing the soft skin behind Levi’s ear.

Levi nods, shivering. “Put your hand on my neck,” he breathes. “Don’t squeeze, just—”

Eren complies immediately, curling his palm around lightly and running his thumb over the side of his neck, and Levi’s eyes slip shut.

“Yeah,” Levi whispers, grinding his hips against Eren. “Like that.”

Eren leans in to bite Levi’s ear, keeping his hand still but thrusting forward to meet him. In a way, he’d been expecting this. After all, Levi wears a turtleneck 24/7, he’s used to having light pressure on his neck. His heart feels like it’s about to beat out of his chest anyway, because Levi makes the most incredible little sound, soft and shaky and desperate, and tilts his head to the other side to give Eren more room.

Eren breathes out and leans in to kiss between his fingers on Levi’s neck, nipping and sucking gently, and Levi moans, back arched as he works himself back onto Eren’s cock. Inspired, Eren moves his other arm so it’s curled around him, too, even though Levi’s weight is on top of it and it’ll probably fall asleep before they’re done, and wraps his fingers around Levi’s dick. Levi hisses, one hand grabbing for Eren, and his fingernails scrape Eren’s skin, which makes Eren’s hips jut forward and his hands tighten on Levi. 

Levi gasps, back arching, and Eren swears quietly and loosens his grip, but Levi shakes his head and presses into the touches, needy. “You can be rough,” he murmurs. “I don’t mind.”

Eren bites the back of his neck gently. “It’s not about what you don’t mind, it’s about what you want,” he says, rolling deep into him. “What do you want, Levi?”

Levi moans, luxuriating in all the attention for a moment, then gets his wits about him again. “You,” he says. “That’s all.”

Eren, caught off-guard, goes red and presses his face into the side of Levi’s neck, kissing him. “Well,” he mumbles, “I’m right here.”

“Yeah, you are,” Levi murmurs, then puts a hand on top of Eren’s on his cock to get him to resume stroking. This feels so natural, so simple, like it’s a normal extension of the conversations they have on the phone or Levi smiling at him from the passenger seat of the van, and Eren closes his eyes, trying to keep up a steady rhythm of thrusts into him. Levi is so pliant in his arms, so lush, and Eren could stay like this forever. That is, if he weren’t definitely desperate to come already, but it’s the thought that counts.

Eren gently nips his ear again, but he doesn’t get any rougher than that as he keeps stroking Levi and grinding into him. They have plenty of time to experiment. He wants to communicate to Levi that he’s not going anywhere, that all he wants is to make him feel good, that he’ll do anything. It seems to be working, too, based on the way Levi is pressing back against him and trembling when Eren drives in particularly well.

“Eren,” Levi murmurs, a little strained, and tilts his head to the side. “I’m— close, don’t stop, I’m close.”

“Not gonna stop,” Eren promises, running his thumb up Levi’s neck again and kissing under his ear. “I’m yours.”

Levi makes a small, broken noise, body pulling tight like a bow, and comes, and Eren strokes him through it, keeping his own eyes open so he can see as much of him as he can, take it all in. Levi is gasping quietly when he’s done, cheeks pink and eyes closed and hands gripping Eren’s forearms tightly. He looks vulnerable, helpless, trusting, and Eren lets go of his neck in favor of wrapping both arms around him and cradling him close. 

“What about you?” Levi mumbles once he’s caught his breath a little more, turning his head to bump his lips against Eren’s temple. 

“What about me?” Eren says, even though he’s also close, he’s been close to coming since Levi pushed him against the kitchen counter. “Don’t worry, take your time.”

“No,” Levi says and shimmies forward so Eren slips out of him. The condom is gone in another moment and Levi’s hand replaces it, stroking quick and easy. Levi turns over so he can catch Eren’s mouth in a kiss, and Eren is moaning into Levi’s mouth when he comes.

Levi reaches over to his bedside table with his other hand and comes back with some tissues. He delicately cleans them both up, kissing Eren the whole time, unable to pull away, and Eren puts his hands on Levi’s waist to draw him closer. They fit perfectly there in the curve of his hips, he can’t help but notice, but instead of saying anything about it, he kisses Levi some more.

Levi breaks the kiss eventually and pushes Eren to lie on his back. He then settles his head on Eren’s chest, sighing softly, but he still seems restless. “What is it?” Eren murmurs, running a hand down from Levi’s nape to the bottom of his spine.

Levi hums and nuzzles his face into Eren’s chest. “Could you go open a window for me, please?” he requests, sitting up, and stretches his arms above his head, fingers curling.

Eren watches him for a moment, enamored, then nods and gets up. It takes a bit of finagling, but he figures out the lock and pushes the window open and looks out into the back garden. “Is this fine, or do you want it more open?”

“More,” Levi says. Eren glances back at him and sees him getting out a pack of cigarettes from his nightstand. Levi looks up, and he makes a cute guilty face, but that dissipates when Eren beams at him, proud to have been such a good fuck that Levi wants to have a cliché post-coital cigarette. 

Eren pushes the window open almost all the way, then comes back to bed. Levi lights his cigarette and scoots over both so he can reach the ashtray and give Eren room. The sheets are pooled around his thighs and Eren can see the red beginnings of bite marks on his neck and shoulders; he’s beautiful. Eren lies down by his side, one hand idly moving to trail his fingertips over his back, and Levi doesn’t stop him, but he doesn’t react, either, just tapping his index finger on the cigarette to get the ash off, wrist cocked delicately. 

“You okay?” Eren asks, flattening his palm on the small of Levi’s back and turning on his side so he can see him better.

Levi nods, taking another drag and exhaling in the direction of the window. “Better than.” He still looks a little melancholy, though, inexplicably, so Eren scoots up and hugs him around the middle, head nestled under his arm. This appeases Levi, evidently, because there’s a tiny smile on his face as he ashes his cigarette again.

“Same here,” Eren says. “Wanna go again?”

Levi scoffs quietly, still smiling. “You’re incorrigible.”

“Is that a no?” Eren says, tilting his head up to grin at Levi.

Levi takes a drag and hums, and that smile is looking like it’s there to stay. “No.”

“That’s what I thought,” Eren says and takes hold of the sheet, pushing it down so he can press his face into Levi’s lap. Levi quickly stubs his cigarette out in favor of putting his hands in Eren’s hair, and Eren is smiling to himself as he kisses down the line of his hips.

After, Levi is curled around him again, face in Eren’s neck and hands gently resting against Eren’s arms. His eyes are barely open, and his eyelashes occasionally brush Eren’s skin. Eren can’t even see his face, but he thinks he can guess what sort of expression Levi is wearing, because he’s got the same one on.

“What time is it?” Levi asks, voice soft and drowsy.

Eren lifts his head to see the digital clock on Levi’s bedside table. He also looks around the room, because he wants to see how Levi’s got it decorated. It’s sparse, but his character is clearly there in the blue pinstriped curtains, in the slightly chipped paint on the closet door, in the positioning of the bed, in the stuffed-full bookshelf. “Just after one. Why?”

Levi sighs, twisting his mouth to the side. “So it’s… two in Toronto. She might still be awake, she used to stay up until four or five most nights.”

Eren raises his eyebrows, confused, then realizes Levi means Isabel. “Are you…”

“I should call her,” Levi says, kissing Eren’s shoulder just once and then pulling away so he can sit up. “I’ll be right back. You can go down to the kitchen and fix yourself something if you get hungry, but I won’t be long.”

“Okay,” Eren says, watching Levi. “Good luck.”

Levi gets his phone from the pocket of his long-discarded jeans, then nods slightly. “Thank you. I’ll need it.”

He comes back over and presses his lips to Eren’s gently, but Eren barely has time to kiss back before Levi steps away again. He goes to his closet and gets a cotton dressing gown, which makes him look very stately and aristocratic, and goes out of the room. Eren listens to his footsteps until he can’t hear them anymore and lies back down, covering himself with the sheet so he doesn’t get cold. 

When Levi comes back, Eren has dozed off, limbs akimbo and head barely on the pillow. He’s awoken by the feeling of someone tucking a blanket around him, and he opens his eyes to see Levi. “Hey,” he says, sitting up and nearly bonking Levi in the head. “I fell asleep, sorry. How’d it go?”

Levi shrugs a little, turning on his bedside lamp and turning off the big overhead light. His eyes are rimmed with red, but he doesn’t look upset. “It was… good to hear her voice,” he says quietly after a moment. “She’s thinking of flying out to see me this month, she’ll start looking at tickets soon.”

“What?” Eren says, sitting up and scooting over so Levi can get in the bed. Levi doesn’t seem very excited about this, though, and when Eren glances over at the clock, he sees why: two hours have passed. “That’s awesome, Levi! You haven’t seen her since you moved here?”

Levi shakes his head, untying the robe and slipping into bed next to Eren once it’s off. Eren realizes he kept his socks on the whole time, even when they were fucking, and is incredibly endeared. “Yeah. But nothing’s guaranteed yet, it depends on when she can get time off from work.”

“Even still,” Eren says, putting his arm around Levi. He’s worried Levi isn’t a very physically affectionate person and won’t want to cuddle now that they’re not directly coming off an orgasm high, but Levi leans his head on Eren’s shoulder and drapes an arm over him.

Levi is silent for a while, but his fingers are fidgeting, and Eren can tell he’s on the brink of saying something else, so he waits. Finally, Levi says, “I’ve been thinking about Farlan.”

“What about Farlan?” Eren asks, gently cuddling Levi closer.

“For all his melodrama, he really does lead a miserable existence,” Levi murmurs. “Just think. As it is, he’s tied to that ball for eternity. He can’t go anywhere on his own. I’m at work all day. He’s had no one but me to talk to for the past decade. It’s miserable.”

“But he doesn’t complain about it, right? Must be better than being dead,” Eren says hesitantly.

Levi shakes his head slightly. “I don’t know. It’s— it’s probably not very good for my mental health to have him around all the time, either. I’m over it, or I should be over it, but every time I look at him I have to face what I did.”

“You didn’t do anything,” Eren disagrees, voice soft.

“He saved my life and I killed him,” Levi says flatly. “Or, at least, directly contributed to his death. That much is undeniable. I’ve been dealing with it. But there’s only so much I can do.”

Eren bites his lip. “What are you saying?”

“I don’t know.” Levi sighs, turning his head so he can press a soft kiss to Eren’s shoulder again. “Maybe… maybe when Isabel visits, she and I can talk about it, fix the bad blood, heal. And then, maybe I’ll be strong enough to let him go.”

“What do you mean, let him go?” Eren says, rubbing Levi’s arm lightly. “Like, into the great beyond or whatever?”

“Yeah,” Levi says, soft and faltering. “If that’s even possible. I don’t want him to suffer for the rest of forever because of my guilt. I have to let go of my guilt, and then I’ll be able to let him go, too.”

Eren presses his lips to the top of Levi’s head. “Were you in love with him?” he asks.

Levi hesitates, then shakes his head. “I’d just never had a friend before,” he says quietly.

Eren is surprised to find he’s not even relieved to hear that answer; he’d have been fine with anything. He just wants Levi to be okay. “Well, don’t rush to get him out of here,” he says. “It’ll probably take a while for you to get to that point.”

“You’re right, and I know,” Levi murmurs. He pokes at Eren’s side until Eren lies down fully, then settles his head on Eren’s chest again. “But I’ll get there. Eventually. Hopefully. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about lately.”

Eren kisses Levi’s head and loops his arms around him, holding him close. He wants to tell Levi how much he admires him, how he’ll support him through anything, how he wants to be by his side forever. He thinks about keeping Levi in bed for a week or so, exploring him, trying everything until he finds what he likes the most, being the best Levi has ever had. He even considers telling Levi that he’s falling in love with him or already has, a total goner from the moment Levi called him ‘dickweed.’

Instead of saying any of that, though, he kisses Levi’s temple and says, “Hey. You know aliens?”

“I know of them,” Levi says. “Why?”

“You think they’re real?”

Levi considers it for a second. “I don’t know. I suppose it’s a possibility.”

Eren grins. Levi lifts his head and looks up at him.

“You wanna find out?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we did it!!! we made it!!! all the way to the end!!!! if you’ve stuck with me and the bust ghosters, i really can’t thank you enough. i miss this fic already (am i vaguely considering a sequel? hoho? am i? either way, i’ve written a bunch of little extra scenes and missing moments that i may or may not post). thank you so much for reading! i am always available on tumblr @gaywillis and twitter @paratazxis to talk about this fic or life in general. big love! let me know if you liked this fic in reviews or wherever you want — and if you can help me live out my lifelong dream of punching zak bagans in the face, pls contact me immediately and let’s make this happen. and if you’ve been reading this fic since the start but have been too shy to say anything, now’s your chance to come forward and say hi as this chapter of my and the bust ghosters’ lives draws to a close :’)
> 
> if you like the content in this fic, namely bust ghosters content, i highly encourage you to watch the travel channel show ghost adventures and buzzfeed’s series “unsolved.” i saw neither of these things before i started writing (seriously!! i promise) but i seem to have accidentally invented both of them independently.
> 
> some acknowledgments: to my girlfriend maddie for being this fic’s number one biggest fan since it was just a twinkle in my eye, and for doing such amazing art which can all be found on my tumblr!!! to yesenia for being this fic’s number two biggest fan and tagging me in spooky houses on tumblr for inspiration!! (and to all my other tumblr mutuals who have encouraged me and enthused with me about this fic mgdkfjgndf esp alex!!). to that 20-hour train ride from kirov to st. petersburg where i did so much writing!!! and of course to the bust ghosters… can't believe we finally made it to the other side 
> 
> love u thank you!!!!!!! :’)


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